Atlanta qualifying set-up leaves Wiranata with little to cheer about
The Olympic Games are all things to all sportsmen. They represent the pinnacle of achievement and the rarest of opportunities to be hero-worshipped in the country of your birth.
Sports which normally do not command an hour's broadcast time in the depth of night are given prime-time spots and are beamed to millions of homes worldwide.
Gymnasts Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci would have been anonymous to all but the initiates in their own sport if not for the Olympics.
Like gymnastics, the Asian-dominated sport of badminton has gained credibility and exposure since joining the Olympic fold four years ago in Barcelona.
After a test run as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, what is reputed to be one of the fastest and most strenuous of all sports commanded the biggest television audience of all events in Spain.
A lot of credit for that goes to the Indonesian players who captured the imagination of their countrymen and attracted a huge television following in what is the world's fourth most populous country.
Allan Budi Kusuma and his bride-to-be Susi Susanti rose to the occasion by lifting the men's and women's singles crowns - the first gold medals won by the country's sportsmen at an Olympic Games.
Their displays are still fresh in the collective mind of the badminton-crazy country and huge television viewing figures are again expected for the Atlanta Olympics.
Kusuma and Susanti will be there to defend their titles but some of the excitement evaporated last week with news that Indonesia's world number seven Ardy Wiranata had failed to qualify for the Games because of a flawed selection process.
The Interational Badminton Federation (IBF) has ruled that a maximum of three players from the same country are permitted to compete in the same event at the Olympics.
With world number one Joko Suprianto, world champion Heryanto Arbi and Kusuma ranked above him, Wiranata was unceremoniously axed.
You would have thought the IBF would have made a few soothing remarks. But there was not so much as a 'maybe we will have to look at the system again' remark.
Instead they produced the type of crass comment which turns athletes against administrators. Said a spokeswoman: 'Being part of the world's most successful badminton country does have its drawbacks.' While it's true that other sports have similar qualifying requirements as badminton, nobody has been as hard done by as Wiranata.
Ironically, while the system has worked against Wiranata in the most horrible of ways, it has helped another great of the sport to have a last swing at glory.
Korea's Park Joo-bong, the most accomplished doubles player in the game, was persuaded to come out of retirement to have a crack at the Olympic mixed doubles title which will be contested for the first time in Atlanta.
It would be great to see Park win the gold and even better if Wiranata was asked along to present it.
Inviting him to Atlanta in such a capacity is the least the IBF can do to make up for the vagaries of the qualifying set-up.
