(Reporter Joon-seok Yoon, Xports News) It is shocking to the local badminton community that Malaysian national badminton team doubles player Ong Yu-sin has recently received a serious threat to his personal life through social media after being eliminated early from consecutive competitions.
On the 22nd (Korean time), Malaysian media ‘GEMPAK’ reported in detail the content and background of the threatening message targeting Ong Yu-sin and his doubles partner Teo Yi-i, as well as the response of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
According to the media, the world’s 35th-ranked men’s doubles pair, Ong Yu-sin and Teo Yi-i, recorded poor results in the Malaysia Open (Super 1000), India Open (Super 750), and Indonesia Masters (Super 500) held early in the new year, all being eliminated in the first round.
In particular, they ended the tournament early by losing to Taiwan’s Jae-Hwi Lee and Po-Xuan Yang in the first round of the Indonesia Masters held last Tuesday.
Afterwards, Ong Yushin revealed a screenshot of the threatening message he received through his Instagram story. The message contained direct expressions of threatening to physically harm the player along with content forcing him to retire.
The released message included the insulting phrase, “You lost so badly. I can only describe you as a fool. It would be better to retire,” along with the threat, “If I say something, I will definitely put it into practice. I will use any means to make you retire.”
The media reported that the level of threats did not stop there. The caller disparaged Ong Yu-shin’s skills, claiming, “He is not qualified to face seeded players and is not at the level to play on the highest stage,” and even expressed that he was a burden to the team.
What’s even more serious is the direct reference to physical harm, and the message included the sentence, “If this poor performance continues, the day will come when I have to go watch the game in person and I will harm you then.”
Furthermore, it was reported that it even contained shocking content, saying, “I will take a knife and hurt Lee Yi’s hand to make him change his partner or retire.”
It is reported that Ong Yushin is currently considering whether to report the threats to the police.
Previously, Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur police publicly requested that national team players should immediately report to the police if their personal life is threatened so that the authorities can investigate and take appropriate action.
Meanwhile, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) is also taking this issue very seriously.
BAM strongly condemns abusive language and threats on social media towards national team players and has stated that such actions cannot be justified for any reason.
In fact, last year, other national team players, including Malaysia’s highest-ranked men’s doubles pair, Aaron Chia-So Wiik, were also victims of similar online threats, leading some to point out that this incident is not a one-time problem but a structural problem.
This incident, which went beyond criticism and reached the level of directly threatening the player’s safety, once again reveals the dangers of gambling culture and online anonymity surrounding sports results.
Local media outlets are pointing out that the Ong Yushin incident requires institutional response to protect players as well as reflection on fan culture as a whole.
Photo = SNS / Badminton Photo
Reporter Junseok Yoon jupremebd@xportsnews.com
