The object of the games are to win medals.  Everybody has a strategy  to achieve that aim.  Saving energies in preliminary  games could be a strategy to be more prepared   for more demanding games. Just like  swimers don't apply all they  have until the last laps.

Is that something that should  be penalized ? 
 

  Olympic disqualification for badminton athletes after intentionally losing.

The Olympic Games are a place where athletes are supposed to play for the gold. When several badminton doubles players were not even playing the game because it didn’t matter in the preliminaries, the fans booed the athletes off the stage on Tuesday. Now it has been decided by the governing agency over the sport that the athletes can just go home if they don’t want to play properly.

Eight female badminton doubles players were disqualified Wednesday after attempting to throw the matches to have a more favorable place in the tournament with softer competitors. The decision handed down by the Badminton World Federation made it very clear that the ruling is because the players failed to properly play the game.

www.examiner.com/article/olympic-disqual...

Yes. I see. A real life posting flipping answers on  Bnet.

Gosh, interesting.  I don't know I will have to see some additional oppinions on this topic.  This is out of my sphere.

My only smart-ass comment is Badmitton an Olympic sport, Really?

I have heard that atheletes do their best before the big competition to be as inactive as possible to save energy for the big moment.   So this is a valid strategy the team came up with.

I think where the Olympic committee has a case is obviously this is not respecting the Olympic competition.  This is not being respectful of the process. 

In short, I don't think the badmitton team should have been honest about it.