Li Yongbo admitted that the coach team made a decision that Ye Zhaoying(right photo) should give a walkover to Gong Zhichao(left photo) in the ladies single semi-finals of Sydney Olympic Games. It was discovered in the interview to the head coach by CCTV(China Central Television).
The situation was that Danish badminton player Martin entered the finals by beating Chinese Dai Yun, while two Chinese badminton players would fight for a spot of finals.
The two are Ye Zhaoying and Gong Zhichao. The 26-year-old Ye was the most outstanding player at that time with the titles of 1995 and 1997 World Championship and many Open tournaments. Meanwhile, Gong was a rising champion with excellent performance especially in 2000.
“Once they had a hard battle, there would be great loss to the finals for Chinese badminton team no matter who would win in the end. It was no need to exhaust ourselves.” Li Yongbo analyzed it with calm mind.
There was a serious discussion and design in the Chinese badminton team in terms of the one who would face Martin. According to the statistics of scores in 1998 and 1999, Gong Zhichao seldom failed encountering Martin, while Ye Zhaoying was beaten by the Danish a few times. What’s more, Martin expressed his fear of Gong’s hard defense.
But Ye was the No.1 of Chinese badminton WS and made great achievements to the revival of Chinese badminton with a lot of champions including Sudirman and Uber Cup.
“I have been opposing walkover since I became a coach. It would hurt the player and show no respect to the audience when it happened. But in China, national interest is the top one. We finally made the decision that Ye should give a walkover to Gong. We tried to persuade Ye to do so and promised that she would be treated as the Olympic champion if Gong edged Martin. It was sure that nobody was willing to give a walkover. Tears came out from Ye’s eyes. She did not want to give up. But finally Ye accepted the coaches’ arrangement.” Li told the interviewer.
Our dear friend, if you have watched the game, you would have noticed that Ye was very reluctant to lose the game. With the pale face and two 8-11, she gave the walkover to Gong Zhichao. But the latter did not know anything behind the curtain.
“I have been a badminton player and deeply knew how much a badminton player should pay before standing on the winner’s platform. I did not have the heart to suggest anyone to do a walkover.” Li continued.
The head coach expressed his appreciation to Ye. The things went as Li’s prediction. Gong defeated Martin to scoop the 14th badminton title.
OK, the story is finished. What’s your feeling?
In some content it sounds reasonable. No matter how many excuses for it, walkover is walkover. Sometimes I can not figure out which is right. Can national interest replace individual right to compete fair and square? Were there similar things happened in other countries? How did they handle this kind of matter? If you have the chance to choose your opponent, will you do a walkover?
Comment on the chatterbox.
