I'm sorry if I understand that athletes train to win gold... you know actually win the competition. They played the system, which is obviously flawed, but can you really blame them? I'd have done exactly the same thing. As I understand it there's nothing explicit in the regulations that prohibits such behaviour.

Your sole objective is to play to win gold. That's the 'spirit of the games'. If winning a game actually hinders this goal then that is the problem. It's certainly not pretty, but fully understandable. I think if that exclusion was in an F1 race arena the lawyers would easily get the ruling overturned, but I guess it's the Olympics and anything goes.

The people that organise the competition need to change the system, that's fairly obvious.

Quote from J@tko :

We were just debating this at home, and yeah you can't do it purely for the qualification places (e.g. if you have 2 teams on 4 point and 2 teams on 1 point, and they play each other then the teams on 4 will play for a draw) but I don't think in a group with just 4 teams you can end up with a situation where both teams can afford to play for a loss or draw :| But yeah the World Cup changed to try and avoid it. I've not seen it since I've been watching football

I think in team sports (lol, does pairs actually count as a team? ) it's harder to do, due chemistry and bad feeling in a match can easily continue to the next match and so on.

Altough there might be another example, in Torino 2006 Sweden's ice hockey team was questionably bad against Slovakia. Loser of that match got an easier oppononent in the quarter finals. This was actually investigated again last year after one of their players kind of admitted it in an interview.

Quote from Intrepid :

Am I missing something here? You are there to win gold not to please the crowd. The idea is you do all you can to win gold. If the system means you have to throw games, then that's what you do. I have no problem with it. It's no different to a driver saving tyres or lowering engine revs.

Sorry but I completely agree, it's all in the rules and while sportsmanship should play a part, so should competing within the specific rules for the win.

The rules seem to say that blatently throwing a match results in a DNF.
It was fairly stupid so a black flag seemed well in order.

Quote from Intrepid :

Am I missing something here? You are there to win gold not to please the crowd. The idea is you do all you can to win gold. If the system means you have to throw games, then that's what you do. I have no problem with it. It's no different to a driver saving tyres or lowering engine revs.

I think the rule makers are at fault, if not entirely.

It's an ethically question really, and I have a superb comparrions here in LFS.
Take for example the macro clutch thing. For you who do not know what this is, it's something at least I call a cheat, to do multiple action faster / at same time than what a human can do. It's possible to do, and the devs obviously don't give a **** so they don't care about this, but does that mean you should do it? The gain is not huge, but some .10's of a second here and there, and oops, suddently you are not that far away from the WR if you know how to play.

I am not going to start the discussion about macro clutch or not, but I have made myself pretty clear that I think people who uses it are low, very low. The gain is minimum yes, but still - if you canot do it, as a damn human (again multiple actions at same time), then it's a exploit, cheat, admiting your not a fair driver driving on the same conditions as most other drivers.

Now back to the OL. Maybe the system is flawed, I don't know, I am not educated enough into the subject - but if you try to trick, cheat, play dirty, unfair or anything which isn't good sporting spirit, well then you have NOTHING to do in any OL, or any championship.
It's like the people who allways screws up their stats in online gaming, so they can rape n00bs which is by far less good as them, does that make the gamer(s) a better player? NO!! It makes them pathethic losers, who choses the easy way out.

Be a real champion and play with full spirit, defeating the foes fair and square, no matter the competition or situation.

Edit:
The part about drivers saving tyres in races. For me that is a strategy. It's a strategy which is beneficial for the race. It's a fair strategy and I have nothing against that. But at least how I look it's a different kind of strategy, and more acceptable, than screwing up your matches to get easier competetors. Again, read the part above about people screwing their stats to take the easy way out.
A other strategy would ofc. be to wreck the man who is 2th in championship, to personal gain. It is possible - but does that mean you should do it? (and very extreme example).

Quote from Intrepid :

I'm sorry if I understand that athletes train to win gold... you know actually win the competition. They played the system, which is obviously flawed, but can you really blame them? I'd have done exactly the same thing. As I understand it there's nothing explicit in the regulations that prohibits such behaviour.

Your sole objective is to play to win gold. That's the 'spirit of the games'. If winning a game actually hinders this goal then that is the problem. It's certainly not pretty, but fully understandable. I think if that exclusion was in an F1 race arena the lawyers would easily get the ruling overturned, but I guess it's the Olympics and anything goes.

The people that organise the competition need to change the system, that's fairly obvious.

The athletes all swear to an "Olympic Oath":

In the name of all the competitors I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams

What they did was not sportsmanship, nor did it honour their teams, nor probably did it comply with their sports regulations.

What they did was a cowardly act - they didn't have the balls to face the perceived better opponent, which if they want to win gold they would probably have to do eventually.

One of the disqualified players won't around in 2016 as she said she quits the sport.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08 ... u-yang-profile/index.html

I like how she blames everyone else to "shatter her dreams".
If she really loved the sport, by heart and soul, then she would done her best to win fair and square - not play like a retard to get easier elimination rounds.

That's my two cents at least.

theres also another perfectly reasonable reason to throwing the game which is saving some energy for the later rounds
ive never heard any complaints about cheating in the football world and euros when they sent out their b teams for the 3rd group game if theyre already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs

Quote from Shotglass :

theres also another perfectly reasonable reason to throwing the game which is saving some energy for the later rounds
ive never heard any complaints about cheating in the football world and euros when they sent out their b teams for the 3rd group game if theyre already guaranteed a spot in the playoffs

The big difference - Even a B team at World Cup or EURO did not shoot lots of own goals to loose the match.

Its a tricky question really, there's often a strategic angle to any sporting event. The target is, after all, winning the entire event, not neccessarily every game.

At the same time, you need to play within the rules, preferably, as close to the rules as possible.

The definition of sportsmanship ( a la wiki ) says : " In general, sportsmanship refers to virtues such as fairness, self-control, courage, and persistence,[3] and has been associated with interpersonal concepts of treating others and being treated fairly, maintaining self-control if dealing with others, and respect for both authority and opponents."

I don't believe that they breached that definition, were they good games ?, no, but if you take the event as a whole then their behaviour made sense.

However, clearly, they breached the rules and so...............

Basketball:

USA 156 : 73 Nigeria

Make your own decisions.

Quote from TexasLTU :

Basketball:

USA 156 : 73 Nigeria

Make your own decisions.

Made me remember some of our regional championship matches this season...just too easy.

Quote from TFalke55 :

The big difference - Even a B team at World Cup or EURO did not shoot lots of own goals to loose the match.

yeah but basically what youre saying is they should have faked it in a more believable way and it would have been a-ok
its just the nature of group stages that they will produce pointless matches and matches where preparing the next game plays a bigger role than the current one
if you dont want that to happen in a tournament youre running dont use group systems

Quote from Shotglass :

yeah but basically what youre saying is they should have faked it in a more believable way and it would have been a-ok
its just the nature of group stages that they will produce pointless matches and matches where preparing the next game plays a bigger role than the current one
if you dont want that to happen in a tournament youre running dont use group systems

Or if you use a group system, draw the knock-out stages from one pool, sothat noone gains an advantage from the group position.

The radio just brought in the news that A German Olympian was sent home today after a long discussion. The channel 1LIVE stated the woman was found to be in a (love) relationship with one of the leaders of the German Nazi party NPD.

More unsportsmanship: http://www.guardian.co.uk/spor ... -hindes-crash-translation

Quote from deggis :

More unsportsmanship: http://www.guardian.co.uk/spor ... -hindes-crash-translation

To be fair France could have done exactly the same thing on the restart if they didn't think they'd gotten a good start. Slightly silly rule IMO.

Quote from deggis :

More unsportsmanship: http://www.guardian.co.uk/spor ... -hindes-crash-translation

don't give medals for sportsmanship. He did the right thing (i don't buy the mistranslation thing)

Badminton match fixing, biased boxing refs, diving cyclists, doped up track athletes. Business as usual. One must have incredibly low self esteem to be proud of winning by cheating.

The idea is to win... and you do what you need to do to win. Simples. Would I bend the rules? yes! If my funding/sponsorship was on the line I wouldn't think twice about binning my bike for a restart... not twice.

it's **** all to do with self-esteem. It's about putting food on the table, and you do what you have to do. You just have to trust the stewards/officials to enforce the rules but I certainly wouldn't judge athletes who 'push' it.

Quote from Intrepid :

You just have to trust the stewards/officials to enforce the rules but I certainly wouldn't judge athletes who 'push' it.

Exactly - we got DQ'ed from the women's sprint for a very very small infringement (for which the judges have "discretion") and the Chinese got DQ'ed for an even smaller one. So if there were any issues they would have been DQ'ed right away.

Quote from Intrepid :

The idea is to win... and you do what you need to do to win. Simples. Would I bend the rules? yes!

In your narcisisstic mind I'm sure it is.

Have you encountered people in LFS that does whatever to win? Have you seriously raced against them and get knocket off track 9 out of 10 times?

If not, then I hope you will one day meet one and understand that winning is not everything, and same goes for OL. People who win can be completty ****tards sometimes, the real great men and woman are the ones that win fair and square, giving it all but not by doing things cheap.

Quote from The Very End :

Have you encountered people in LFS that does whatever to win? Have you seriously raced against them and get knocket off track 9 out of 10 times?

If not, then I hope you will one day meet one and understand that winning is not everything, and same goes for OL. People who win can be completty ****tards sometimes, the real great men and woman are the ones that win fair and square, giving it all but not by doing things cheap.

Have you ever competed in a sport where your actually livelihood is on the table? Where you don't know whether you will have the money to get to the next event or your next meal?

And comparing to LFS is a complete nonsense. Motorsport is jam packed full of rule-benders.

You can try and compete sport in the 'spirit of the game', but good luck trying to get funding. Yes, always try to improve rule enforcement, but don't judge the athletes.