Lose Lose

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Natural Sciences, History, Documentary, Science, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2016

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

No matter what sport you play, the object of the game is to win. And that’s hard enough to do. But we found a match where four top athletes had to do the opposite in one of the most high profile matches of their careers. Thanks to a quirk in the tournament rules, their best shot at winning was … to lose. This episode, we scrutinize the most paradoxical and upside down badminton match of all time, a match that dumbfounded spectators, officials, and even the players themselves. And it got us to wondering … what would sports look like if everyone played to lose? Reported by Latif Nasser. Produced by Matt Kielty and Annie McEwen and Latif Nasser. Special thanks to Aparna Nancherla, Mark Phelan, Yuni Kartika, Greysia Polii, Joy Le Li, Mikyoung Kim, Stan Bischof, Vincent Liew, Kota Morikowa, Christ de Roij and Haeryun Kang. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.5	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y. Se.
0:14.8	See?
0:15.1	Yeah.
0:19.3	Hi, I'm Robert Quilwilwitch. And I'm Lathif Nassar. This is Radio Lab, and today we're going to do something completely upside down. And inside out. Yes. It's a sports story. Sort of, but like none you've ever heard. And therefore, we found a reporter who is a sports reporter like none you've ever heard. Yeah. I've been to a gym lately. Mike Peska. He's the host of The GIST podcast put up by Slate, formerly of NPR, still sometimes works with NPR, and now he's here telling the story to us. Yeah. And how did you even first hear about this? Were you covering it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Renee Monta.
0:57.0	I was covering the 2012 Olympics for NPR.
0:59.7	Good morning. Hello.
1:00.9	And...
1:01.2	I declare open the Games of London.
1:04.9	The stories of the Olympics, you try to find your own stories that are obscure, but if there's a big
1:10.2	story, you chase it.
1:11.4	So in those Olympics...
1:12.4	So for you, what were the most notable achievements in the first week of the games?
1:16.3	Well, it's history of the best kind.
1:18.2	Michael Phelps breaking the all-time record, obviously.
1:20.6	So in over 100 years, nobody's won as many medals of the Olympic Games.
	...

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