South Korea's badminton authority is complaining because China's players kept yelling 'f---' at the Olympics

• China's badminton silver medalists have attracted a complaint for their constant swearing.
• They apparently said "f---" on multiple occasions during a badminton doubles win over South Korea.
• South Korean media was critical of the cursing but many social media users on Weibo found it funny.

South Korea's badminton association is complaining to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) because China's players kept saying "f---" during a doubles match involving competitors from both countries.

CNN reported Wednesday that Chen Qingchen, a 24-year-old athlete, repeatedly said a curse word in Mandarin during a July 27 match that was broadcast live on South Korea television.

Chen and teammate Jia Yifan lost the first set to Kim So-yeong and Kong Hee-yong. At 1-0 down, Chen first said the word, roughly equivalent to "f---" in English.

The Chinese doubles then mounted a comeback and win the match two sets to one. But for every point won in the successful second and third sets, both Chen and Jia would celebrate by shouting "f---."

Whether necessary or not, the language may have helped China as it stormed all the way to the final and won the silver medal on Monday, August 2.

But the behavior has been lambasted by South Korean media, which suggested the swearing was unsporting.

CNN said South Korea's badminton association was going to "lodge a formal complaint with the World Badminton Federation over the incident."

Reacting to the controversy on Weibo, which is a state-censored social media site akin to Twitter, Chen said the swearing was "self-encouragement."

The swearing, considered more light-hearted in China than the "f---" version of the word in English, was met with amusement on Weibo.

Chinese weightlifting gold medalist Shi Zhiyong is also known to use the word with regularity while he is training.