'winning' at the Olympics

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Eight female badminton players were shown the door at the Olympic games in London today. They were accused of losing matches on purpose as a tactical means of placing themselves more favorably in a run-up to the finals.

The Badminton World Federation announced its ruling after investigating two teams from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia. It punished them for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" in matches Tuesday night.

If winning is the primary concern in sports, how then could losing in order to win be considered a punishable offense?

News programs here in the U.S. are as smitten with the Olympics as they are with the presidential campaign... and equally boring about it. Since NBC has the television rights to Olympic events, other stations are forced either to buy footage or talk viewers to death on topics that cry out for videotaped evidence... which is more often than not missing.

And on top of all that, there is the numbing desire to root for the home team, to tell how many gold medals the United States or Great Britain or China or whoever all else has won. I don't care about the home team very much. I care, when I do watch, about the excellence of the athletes, win, lose or draw. Their hard work and expertise, the flubs and successes, are inspiring ... I don't give a shit where they come from.
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