London Olympics: Probe into thrown badminton matches widens

LONDON — Olympic officials demanded a deeper investigation into the badminton fixing scandal Thursday as China's coach took the blame for a match being thrown at the London Games and a player appeared to quit the tarnished sport.

The International Olympic Committee wants team coaches, trainers or officials of the four doubles pairs to be punished if they encouraged or ordered the eight, now-disqualified players to lose intentionally.

The doubles teams — the top-seeded pair from China, two pairs from South Korea and one from Indonesia — were also set to have their accreditations removed by their national Olympic bodies and sent home.

Defending Olympic champion Yu Yang of China went further by apparently announcing her retirement from badminton.

"This is my last game," read a posting on a verified account for Yu on the Tencent microblogging service. "Farewell Badminton World Federation. Farewell my dear badminton."

Chinese badminton coach Li Yongbo issued an apology, saying: "It's me to blame."

"We didn't … follow the Olympic spirit of 'higher, faster and stronger' as professional athletes," Li added.