Career
A doubles specialist, Yu and her regular partner Du Jing have steadily emerged as one of the world's elite women's doubles teams since 2004. They confirmed this status by winning the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing over Korea's Lee Kyung-won and Lee Hyo-jung. Their other titles have included the Polish Open (2004): the China Masters (2005); the Asian Championships and Swiss Open in 2006; the Russian, Hong Kong, and Indonesia Opens in 2007; and the French, Korea, and Singapore Opens in 2008. Yu and Du were bronze medalists at the World Championships in 2006, but were unable to play in the tourney's 2007 edition. They were runners-up at the prestigious All-England Championships in 2008, but avenged that loss by beating their All-England conquerors in the Olympic final.
Yu has also enjoyed recent success in mixed doubles with He Hanbin. They captured titles at the Badminton Asia Championships and the Thailand and Denmark Opens in 2007; and the India, Swiss, Malaysia, and French Opens in 2008. They finished in third place at the Beijing Olympics, making Yu one of only two players to win two medals at the competition.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Yu Yang and her partner, Wang Xiaoli, along with Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung of South Korea, and Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii of Indonesia were disqualified from the competition for "not using one's best efforts to win a match" and "conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport" following matches the previous evening during which they were accused of throwing the match. Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli played against South Korea's Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na, and it has been suggested both teams wanted to lose in order to secure an easier draw, although Yu claimed "she and her partner were just trying to conserve their strength for the knockout rounds". Shortly after, Yu Yang announced that she would retire from badminton.
Read more about this topic: Yu Yang (badminton)
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