2012 London Olympics: Disqualified Chinese player Yu Yang quits badminton after scandal

China’s Yu Yang, one of the eight Olympics badminton players disqualified from the 2012 London Olympics for match-fixing, has announced she is quitting the sport. Yang said on her Twitter-like Weibo account that it was her last time competing.

26-year-old Yu Yang and her partner, Wang Xiaoli, were sent home in disgrace by the Badminton World Federation on Wednesday for throwing the match. The other ousted players were South Korean pairs Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na and Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung, plus Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari of Indonesia.

According to Telegraph, Yang, who won a gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, wrote on her Weibo micro blogging account, "This is my last competition. Goodbye Badminton World Federation (BWF), goodbye my beloved badminton. We only chose to use the rules to abandon the match.”

She went on to say that the players were only leveraging the new rules in the competition, as this was the first time that group stages were used over the knockout stages and they wanted to ensure that they performed better later in the tournament.

"Don't they understand the harm this has caused the athletes?" Yang wrote late Wednesday. "You have heartlessly shattered our dreams. It's that simple, not complicated at all. But this is unforgivable."

Yu Yang and her partner, Wang Xiaoli, were among China’s star players at the Olympics, as they had won the world championship in women’s doubles last year. Prior to their disqualification, both of them apologized to fans and vowed to play their finest in future matches.

The scandal has been one of the most talked-about subjects on Twitter and other micro blogging sites this week so far. On China’s Twitter-like Weibo, many Chinese fans called the Olympics match-throwing scandal a humiliation for their country. However, many responded to Yu Yang's announcement with support and sympathy.

Yu Yang's announcement came after the Badminton World Federation announced that the disqualified athletes could continue to compete in future tournaments.

The Xinhua state news agency said Chinese sport officials wanted their disgraced badminton players to make a public apology.

Xinhua quoted a spokesman as saying, "The delegation has already severely criticized and educated the responsible badminton leaders, team and relevant players and demanded they profoundly recognize the seriousness and the harmfulness of this matter reflect deeply on it, publicly apologize and resolutely prevent such incidents from happening again.”