UPDATE: Canada's Women's Doubles Badminton Team will play for bronze after losing to Japan on Wednesday. The duo of Michelle Li and Alex Bruce lost their first game to Japan's Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa 12 - 21. Bruce and Li later rallied back to take the second game 21-19. However, their efforts weren't enough to overcome the likes of Fujii and Kakiiwa who won the third match 21-13 to advance to the finals. Canada will play Russia August the 4th.
The 2012 London Games are only six days in and already a number of ground breaking moments have rocked the Summer Games. From Michael Phelps' 19th medal to Team Canada's women's artistic gymnastics team making history by qualifying for the finals, the media has had no shortage of stories to choose from.
However, unlike the stories of personal achievement and sportsmanship, one story that continues to develop involves the the disqualification of eight Olympic badminton players and has even lead to one player leaving the sport.
On Wednesday, a comment on a verrified account for Yu Yang -- one of the eight disqualified players-- on the Tencent microblogging service read: "This is my last game. Farewell Badminton World Federation. Farewell my dear badminton," reports the Associated Press.
Earlier that day, The Badminton World Federation, the world governing body for badminton, disqualified Yang, along with her partner Wang Xiaol 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 their matches Tuesday night. The duo were the world double champions and were representing China in the Summer Games.
The BWF also expelled Jung Kyun-eun, Kim Ha-na, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung from South Korea, along with Indonesia's Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii on the same grounds. The expulsion was the result of the team's efforts to purposefully lose their matches during the round-robin tournament in order to set up ideal matches for future rounds, according to the CBC.
While the decision left a black eye on the sport, it also gave Team Canada a second chance in the event. In a matter of hours, Toronto's duo of Michelle Li And Alex Bruce beat back the Australian team, winning their matches 21 - 9, 18 - 21 and 21 - 18 Wednesday. Bruce and Li were reinstated after losing their earlier matches to their China and South Korean opponents.
"We could never match a chance like that," said Li regarding Team Canada's advancement to the semifinals. The duo, nicknamed "Bruce Li", will play Japan at Wembley Arena Thursday at 1:30 EST.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee is looking into having China's, South Korea's and Indonesia's national committees strip the disqualified players accreditations, removing them from the athletes village and sending them home, according to IOC spokesman Mark Adams.
"We have asked the NOCs to look into the entourage issue," said Adams on whether teams' trainers, officials and or the coaches, should also be punished.
With files from the Canadian Press
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The Huffington Post Canada | Posted: 08/02/2012 1:40 pm Updated: 08/02/2012 4:03 pm