Olympics Bizarro

So the coach fell sick. He is human after all, but that should not affect the performance of the athlete right? Well apparently not. So starts the blame game. It's the coach's fault for falling sick, the manager's fault for not finding a replacement coach etc etc.

The way I look at it? If there's anybody to be blamed, Gao Ning, the player himself, should bear the (full) responsibility for losing the match. Yes, it is to his disadvantage not to have a coach to guide him through the game, but we are talking about Olympics here, not inter-school games. I expect more of a player who has the capacity to compete at international level, and is 12th in the world ranking. Such a player should have the capabilities of assessing the game and making decisions on which strategy to use. Blaming the absence of the coach for the lost of the game is like saying you are not able to do well in an exam because you are not allowed to have your tuition teacher with you.