What is the Difference?

[Trackfan310]

With the badminton controvery and disqualifications, and track coming up tomorrow, it made me wonder.........whats the difference between what the Badmiton players did, and what often happens in Track (and other sports for that matter)

In Track, it is expected that Athletes will run only as fast as necessary to qualify. Jumpers will make a height or distance and then give up the rest of their available jumps if they are safely in the next round. In other American team sports, NBA teams will rest their stars if they have secured a playoff spot. Ditto for football.

So the question is.......should I be outraged about the Badminton incident? Or are the rules too draconian? OR perhaps should WE expect all out effors from out Athletes all the time to be "fair" to all the people they are competing against and the fans? OR....are the sports simply too different to make such a comparison?

[j-a-m]

Great question; there's an ongoing thread about that in the non t&f section titled "What is sportsmanship?".

[Alan Shank]

With the badminton controvery and disqualifications, and track coming up tomorrow, it made me wonder.........whats the difference between what the Badmiton players did, and what often happens in Track (and other sports for that matter)

In Track, it is expected that Athletes will run only as fast as necessary to qualify. Jumpers will make a height or distance and then give up the rest of their available jumps if they are safely in the next round.

I think there are significant differences here. In qualifying rounds, there is not really "winning" and "losing", there is qualifying and not qualifying. In fact, in determining win streaks, we don't count losses in qualifying unless the athlete doesn't advance. After the first round, higher positions get the choice of better lanes, so there is built-in incentive.

I don't understand why it was advantageous, or perceived to be so, for these teams to lose games in order to not be top-seeded in the next round. What I read sounds like they match lower seeds with each other. This is totally contrary to the way it works in US professional/college sports -- the highest seed plays the lowest seed, next-highest -- next-lowest, and so on. It seems to me that the rules for this badminton round-robin were set up bass-ackwards.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA, USA

[18.99s]

With the badminton controvery and disqualifications, and track coming up tomorrow, it made me wonder.........whats the difference between what the Badmiton players did, and what often happens in Track (and other sports for that matter)

In Track, it is expected that Athletes will run only as fast as necessary to qualify. Jumpers will make a height or distance and then give up the rest of their available jumps if they are safely in the next round. In other American team sports, NBA teams will rest their stars if they have secured a playoff spot. Ditto for football.

So the question is.......should I be outraged about the Badminton incident? Or are the rules too draconian? OR perhaps should WE expect all out effors from out Athletes all the time to be "fair" to all the people they are competing against and the fans? OR....are the sports simply too different to make such a comparison?

In a track event with rounds, you don't enter a race knowing that you'll advance to the next round regardless of your performance (apart from some uncommon circumstances where multiple runners DNS). You have to be faster than somebody in your own heat/or another heat(s), or you're out. So even if you go slow you're still trying hard enough to avoid losing.

In the badminton case they already qualified for the next round based on prior first-round victories. It wasn't a matter of producing a just-good-enough performance, they were (allegedly) deliberately trying to lose.

And with a track race, one runner giving a deliberate sub-par performance isn't as painful to watch -- there are 7 or more others in the race who are trying their best. But with head-to-head sports like tennis and badminton, it ruins the whole game for the audience if one side isn't trying.

[Gold Fever]

Someone help me out please, I just lost a bet, Lolo Jones and Nevin Yanit both had 12.58 times, yet Lolo finishes 4th and Yanit 5th, Why? I can't find the 1000 of sec 12.580001 or whatever on any website....help?...thanks

[gh]

Timers in the U.S. frequently post the 1000th-second times but it's not typically done internationally.

Why did they have different places? Because with modern photo-based timing the decision isn't based on the time; it's based on looking at the photo and seeing which one crossed the line first. It's easy to do that and still have the same time. Just as it was in the old hand-timing days where you could ahve as many as 4 or 5 people with the same time, but given different places.

[Davidokun]

Here's a link to the photo:

• http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1281795/149946576.jpg

It looks like:

• Jones 12.571 or 12.572
• Yanit 12.574

Both correctly recorded as 12.58, in accordance with Rule 165.

[Half Miler]

What do these last 3 posts have to do with the thread topic?