Her announcement came as Beijing ordered its team to apologise for the fiasco. "This is my last competition. Goodbye Badminton World Federation, goodbye my beloved badminton," the 26-year-old wrote on the country's Weibo microblogging service, saying the athletes had used the rules to maximise their chances after organisers changed the event's format. "You have heartlessly shattered our dreams ... It's that simple, not complicated at all. But this is unforgivable," she said. Chinese officials have yet to comment on her decision. The careers of top athletes, including their retirements, are usually carefully controlled by sports authorities. State news agency Xinhua reported that Chinese officials had ordered Yu, her teammate and the head of their Olympic badminton team to publicly apologise. Yu took gold in the women's doubles at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 with another partner. Yu and her teammate Wang Xiaoli were disqualified by badminton's governing body on Wednesday, along with two South Korean pairs and an Indonesian duo for behaving "in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport". The round-robin arrangements gave players an interest in losing so that they could face easier contests at the elimination stage. Spectators booed them off the court, enraged by the farcical matches in which players deliberately served into the net, hit shots wide and missed easy returns. Xinhua quoted an unnamed spokesman as saying: "The [Chinese] delegation has already severely criticised and educated the responsible badminton leaders, team and relevant players and demanded they profoundly recognise the seriousness and the harmfulness of this matter, reflect deeply on it, publicly apologise and resolutely prevent such incidents from happening again." Li Yongbo, chief coach of the Chinese badminton team, said his players' behaviour reflected the shortcomings of the new rules but said that was no excuse. "The key point is we did not behave professionally as athletes and did not treat each match seriously," he told Xinhua. "We didn't strive with all our might in the Olympic way ... As chief coach I really feel I must say sorry to fans and viewers nationwide." The international governing body for the sport has already apologised. "We are very, very sorry that this has happened, both for the players and for the sport," said Thomas Lund, chief executive of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Lund said it took the problem very seriously, but claimed that overall the group stages had been "a tremendous success". He dismissed the widespread criticism that officials should have predicted the fiasco when they adopted the new format as hindsight.
Several people, including BWF employees, have said concerns about the format had been raised long before the Games. (Guardian)
