It's such a shame. I've checked a couple of Korean on-line newspapers ( in English) but none have featured the recent triumph of the Korean women's badminton team in the recent Uber Cup Championships held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sports in Korea seems to be dominated by football, golf, baseball and ice-skating ( not necessarily in that order) and to my surprise, there's not even a mention of the achievements of the ladies who hail from Masan and how they've beaten the Chinese team in the badminton finals in this prestigious tournament in the world of badminton.
Let me quote the head coach, Kim Jong Soo to sum up this milestone: "This is a historic day for Korean badminton. We reached the finals five times before and we were beaten in all five by China. But today it was a different story, we were not the second fiddle.We've had enough of losing to the Chinese. The players were determined to break the jinx and we did it in Kuala Lumpur."
Just hope there'll be some welcoming committee for the ladies when they get back to Korea. It's a pity that badminton isn't such a glamorous sport as ice-skating but then again, who ever said that life was fair?
Here are the results:
Bae Seung Hee beat Wang Yihan 23-21, 21-11;
Lee Hyo Jung/Kim Min Jung beat Ma Jin/Wang Xiaoli 18-21, 21-12, 21-15;
Sung Ji Hyun lost to Wang Xin 14-21, 21-16, 7-21;
Lee Kyung Won/Ha Jung Eun beat Du Jing/Yu Yang 19-21, 21-14, 21-19.
sources:
http://badmintonlife.com/2010/thomas-and-uber-cup-2010-korea-stuns-china-to-win-uber-cup/
http://www.badzine.info/index.php/news/international/2508-fast-facts-about-the-2010-uber-cup.html
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/39072
http://sports.globaltimes.cn/moresports/2010-05/532085.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXyA1mgbJLM&feature=related
7 comments:
Yes, sadly badminton is ignored by the mainstream generally and by the Herald and Times in particular. Badzine is always the best bet for news about Korean badminton in English.
Even worse, the richest newspaper in the country ripped off a Badzine photo, taken at personal expense by an amateur photographer/writer. So did the national team sponsor, in fact.
Yes, sadly, badminton is largely ignored by the mainstream, particularly the subset that is published in English. Badzine is still the best place to get news in English about Korean badminton.
Dear Mr Hearn,
Thank you for your comments. Any idea why badminton is poor cousin to soccer and baseball in South Korea? Does it have anything to do with regionalism?
Regards,
ajumma
Hi. First off, sorry for the double post.
I'm not sure it was intended, but 'poor cousin' may be an apt description. I've long believed that the sports that get the attention are the ones that the rich nations excel at or at least care about: golf, tennis, baseball, soccer, basketball, figure skating. During the Olympics, Korean TV will focus on the sports that get them medals (thus putting the nation on the map) but the medals most treasured seem to be the ones won by the athletes such as Kim Yuna and Park Tae Hwan, who are not just beating Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and Denmark.
That theory doesn't explain everything of course, as Korea also excels at handball and speed-skating, where their main competition is from OECD countries, but those sports get covered as little as badminton does. Some sports just get marketed globally better and people in many nations demand them as a commodity regardless of the success of their compatriots. This is why the Australian Open tennis coverage can pre-empt the Korea Open badminton coverage and why we get two weeks of live NBA championship games but zero All England, Uber Cup, or World Championship coverage.
Dear Mr Hearn,
Many thanks for the super prompt reply and for not giving a cursory response to my question. It does seem to be a lot to do with marketing and the survival or in this case, thriving of the most popular. Your reply has prompted more questions:
1. Is there really so little public demand in Korea for coverage of the less "glamorous" sports or are the broadcasting stations and media networks simply assuming they're giving the public what it wants?
2. Is badminton offered as an extra-curricular activity in schools across Korea and how actively is it promoted to develop new talents?
Better stop here else and not get greedy.
Regards,
ajumma
No. 1 an excellent question to which I don't have an answer. It seems to me that badminton players, by and large, are not from the affluent echelon of society and thus an executive at a television station is far more likely to be a golfer than a badminton player. I've often wondered whether that explains the preposterous amount of airtime devoted to a 'sport' with such low - relative to badminton, at least - participation among Koreans.
That said, the average Korean recreational player is very serious about playing the sport but knows next to nothing about elite players and does not seem bothered that it is rarely on television. There is certainly no craving going on and the rare live broadcasts do not become the talk of the gym, by any stretch. I believe that has to do with the age at which they take up the sport. Most sports fans that I know grew up caring about baseball, football, etc. but badminton has been neither played nor followed by young people (though Lee Yong Dae might change that) so the seeds of fandom were never sown among Korea's huge player base, most of whom started playing in their late twenties or later. Television coverage has always done given baseball its young fans while soccer and basketball are among the few sports that can be played by all ages and they have also been on television for a long time. Golf may be the exception because of its appeal to those with dreams of affluence and golf - like baseball and now football - features Koreans who are doing well overseas in an aggressively marketed sport.
2. The promotion of new talent in every sport in Korea happens through an elite system, usually within the school system. In badminton, the kids are chosen for the team at age 8 or 9 and are trained for the next 20-25 years. Some who elect to leave, do, and return to the regular academic stream but the ones who stick with it are out of the academic stream for the duration and they get into high school and university based on sport, not through an entrance exam score. Any children who are not on this kind of team, never seem to play any sport even semi-seriously and of course, in high school, students are expected to give up their leisure time altogether. One amazing thing is that Korea's talent pool is very small. There are rarely more than one or two middle and high schools per province or metropolitan area with an elite team and each of these is only fed by 2-4 elementary schools. Also, the identification of talent in the 8-9 year-olds is sometimes done on a very random basis and this is how some of Korea's biggest stars have got their start.
Dear Mr Hearn,
Once again muchas gracias or gamsa-hamnida for your enlightening and detailed reply. I had assumed that the Koreans were quite systematic about choosing grooming their sports talents and it is surprising to hear from you that their talent pool is small.
Regards,
ajumma
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