Badminton
World no. 1 badminton player lashes out at government for below par travel arrangement to Olympics
The badminton star seemed quite displeased at the mediocre and uncomfortable travel arrangements for Tokyo bound athletes.
Tai Tzu Ying (Image: AFP Photo)
The least that athletes expect out of government organisers for sporting events is that they are provided with decent accommodation and travel facilities. However, athletes from Taiwan were in for a surprise as their travel arrangements were the complete opposite of what they expected. Taiwanese athletes were seated in economy on their entire flight to Tokyo and this prompted a massive backlash. Tai Tzu Ying was particularly unimpressed and revealed how she felt in an Instagram post captioned "I miss Eva airline, got to sit in business class".
Her father then took over and spoke about how the World No 1 badminton star has motion sickness and that families should organize travel arrangements if the government could not do the same. He also said the matter could be taken up on another day and the focus should be on winning the gold medal. For now, the Taiwanese athletes are staying in a hotel outside the Games Village due to fears of contracting Covid and also because the badminton training centre is nearer.
This backlash from fans resulted in Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to come out with an apology about the entire debacle. She promised that this issue would be taken up on the return journey and ample travel arrangements would be provided for athletes in the future as well.
