From ‘Wang lets fly at officials after loss’, article by Tan Yo-Hinn, 1 Aug 2012, Today
Singapore paddler Wang Yuegu yesterday lashed out in a controversial attack on the umpire after her quarter-final exit from the women’s singles competition yesterday. Moments after her 4-1 defeat to Japan’s Kasumi Ishikawa at London’s ExCel Arena, Wang stunned the Singapore media when she hit out at the appointment of German Claudia Moller as the umpire for their match.
“As soon as I saw I had a German umpire, I knew I was going to lose points,” said the 31-year-old, who is ranked world No 11, and who could be competing in her last Olympics. “My husband is German, and I have a private problem with them. Someone from their team is abusing their relationship with officials and has arranged for me to have a German umpire.
“They’re abusing their power and I can’t respect that. “Today, I feel fine personally about the match, but I feel bad for the sport and bad for the Olympic Games that this is allowed to happen.”
…At the World Championship in Dortmund, Germany, in March this year, Wang was shown the red card for protesting a series of dubious service calls by German umpire Klaus Seipold and Kosovo’s Jeton Beqiri during Singapore’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in a Group B match. She initially refused to leave, and women’s team coach Zhou Shusen and assistant coach Jing Junhong were also involved in the incident.
Damn you, Sky!
Considering how strange it is for Wang to discriminate against Germans when she claims her spouse is German himself, I dug further and pulled out another report stating that Wang’s husband is actually a TAIWANESE BASED in Germany. If not convinced, look no further than this Facebook pic of Wang in a wedding photo shoot. Another discrepancy is the reason for Wang being red-carded in March; CNA reported that Wang was tossed out of the match for giving ‘illegal advice’ or ‘coaching’ from the sidelines. I didn’t think you could get ejected from a game of ping pong, but even in the face of immense pressure to perform for the current World no. 11, such unsportmanslike hysteria is disappointing of any athlete in any stage of competition, especially a silver medalist. Incidentally, Wang’s ranking points according to ITTF are on a rather steep decline, in proportion to her shortening temper and turning into the female Wayne Rooney of Table Tennis. I wonder if estrogen pills are permissible drugs in the Olympics because it seems obvious that a temperamental Wang needs some hormone replacement therapy. STAT. (Even though she’s only 32 this year, according to the Wang Yuegu Fanclub Facebook Page)
Wang’s not the only athlete to lash at everything other than their own inadequacies. Fellow paddler and ex-countryman Gao Ning blamed his coach and manager for his crashing out of the 2008 Olympics, humiliated and suffering a blow to the ego for being cast aside in favour of his silver-medal winning counterparts (Wang included). Naturalised citizen and foul-mouthed swimmer Tao Li ‘attributed’ her loss this year to the short time spent with a new coach. Teen sensation Joseph Schooling blamed officials sticking to their list of approved goggles rules for ‘messing up his swim’. Shooter Jasmine Ser was distracted by ‘a photographer’s camera clicks’ despite winning ‘only a silver’ in 2011′s SEA games. Singapore’s top golfer Mardan Marmat, bizarrely enough, blamed GOOD WEATHER for his failure at this year’s British Open. Wang Yuegu herself blamed the English summer heat and the lack of air-conditioning for ‘affecting her rest’
Picking on a bad coach, a spectator sneezing or the weather (good or bad) are petty excuses and typical of not just celebrities but instinctively loss-averse humans in general. To bear a grudge against certain ethnicities while representing the nation, however, is just shameful. Wang Yuegu is one racist weibo tweet away from being sacked from the Olympics, and while she’s giving the Germans all the more reason to think that Singaporeans are all ‘crazy’ in the head, perhaps the table tennis federation, for the sake of keeping ping pong prestigious and as our Olympic bread and butter, should consider retiring her out of courtesy already.
Breaking news that Feng Tianwei just won Singapore a BRONZE after half a century of an individual medal eluding us. Yay to Tianwei! Boo to Yuegu!
Filed under: 2012, Racism, Sports | Tagged: discrimination, Racism, sports, stereotyping, women's table tennis players | 1 Comment »
