Credibility of Olympic Movement tested in 2012

(Xinhua) Updated: 2013-01-01 14:08

But the BWF also had itself to blame for a change of format for the Olympic badminton competition, which went from a straightforward knock-out event to a round-robin stage followed by knock-out.

Aware of the danger of being dropped from the Olympics after 2016, the BWF decided in November to change the Olympic doubles rules. In the future, following the group stage, all pairs finishing second in their groups would be placed into a second draw to determine who they face in the knockout phase.

"This will eliminate any player's thoughts about actively trying to lose a match or matches, irrespective of other match results," the BWF said.

The high-profile farce in badminton is not the only controversy that had marred the 2012 Olympics.

More than a few eyebrows were raised when Ye Shiwen, a 16-year-old Chinese swimmer, knocked five seconds off her personal best in the 400-meter individual medley. She even swam the final 50m of the freestyle leg of her 400m medley faster than the winner of the men's race, American Ryan Lochte, sparking biased speculation which rebounded back against her accusers as voice after voice spoke out to defend her displays and drug tests proved that she was clean.

To add to the woes of the London Games, officiating was not up to Olympic standards.

British cyclist Philip Hindes admitted during an interview in the mixed zone immediately after the men's team sprint that he deliberately crashed in an earlier round because he did not like the start he had. The British team eventually won the restarted race. The International Cycling Union said they were aware of Hindes' remarks but insisted the result of the qualifying race "was not in question", and the IOC also said it would not investigate.

The closing scandal of the games involves lollipops. Two of four candidates who were elected to the IOC's athletes' commission have been disqualified for breaching strict election rules. Both are Olympic gold medalists -Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi and Mu-Ye Chu, a Chinese Taipei taekwondo athlete.

Chu was accused of handing out sweets to athletes, and Murofushi accused of campaigning too hard, such as distributing promotional material to athletes at the Olympic Village dining hall.

While there were other scandals and controversies in connection with the London Olympics, including a couple of positive drug tests and brand protection, these Games, which was dubbed by IOC president Jacques Rogge as "happy and glorious Games", had much to brag about.

History was made as all the NOCs participating in London brought women athletes, setting a new benchmark for female participation.