Unfair or unjust? Former Hong Kong badminton star Zhou Mi got a raw deal for failing a drugs test
- Athens Olympics bronze medallist was punished for testing positive for clenbuterol in 2010 while Thai player Ratchanok managed to escape punishment for the taking the same substance in April
- Hong Kong team coach Tim furious that badminton’s governing body has shown double standards by not punishing the Thai star
Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, a former women’s singles world champion and now world number five, failed a dope test in April. She was never punished.
It was a different story for Hong Kong’s former world number one Zhou Mi, though. Zhou was suspended for two years in 2010 after testing positive for the same banned substance.
Hong Kong team head coach Tim He Yiming is still furious.
“If a player has broken the rules, she has to take responsibility regardless of the reasons,” said He, who accompanied Zhou to a hearing by the world governing body in Denmark in 2010. “That’s what we were told at the hearing but apparently the Thai player’s case shows there is a double standard by the world body.
“Zhou also [like the Thai player] claimed she had mistakenly taken the banned substance and was given a two-year ban but there was nothing, no penalty at all for the Thai player. What else can we say?
