Michelle_Li

Michelle Li

Michelle Li

Canadian badminton player (born 1991)

Michelle Li (born November 3, 1991) is a Canadian badminton player.[1][2] Li is the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion and the first Canadian to win an individual gold medal in women's singles badminton at the Commonwealth Games. She has won gold in both singles and doubles at the Pan American Games and won the singles and team event titles from the Pan American Badminton Championships. As a competitor for Ontario, Li also won singles, doubles, and mixed team titles at the 2011 Canada Winter Games.

Quick Facts Michelle Li 李文珊, Personal information ...
Quick Facts Chinese, Transcriptions ...

Early life and education

Michelle Li was born in Hong Kong to Chi Keung Li and Agnes Kwong; together with her brother Mark, they moved to Canada in 1997. An active child, she started playing badminton at age 11 with her mom at the local community center. A friend introduced her to her current club, where she began lessons and competing locally in small tournaments. She started competing internationally when she was around 17 years old. Li graduated from Richmond Hill High School and is an undergraduate student at Rotman Commerce at the University of Toronto.[citation needed]

Career

2010–2012

One of Li's early notable performances came at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There she won gold in the women's singles event and followed that performance with a gold in the doubles event with Alexandra Bruce. Due to this success, she was named the flag bearer for Team Ontario at the closing ceremonies for the games.[3]

Later that year, Li was the gold medal winner in the women's doubles event alongside Bruce at the 2011 Pan American Games.[4] Li would then go on the next day to win the women's singles competition, completing a second games double gold appearance that year, this time in Guadalajara.[5]

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Bruce and Li finished last in the round-robin portion of the women's doubles tournament, losing all three of their matches.[6] However, the top two teams in the group were disqualified for attempting to intentionally lose matches so they would have an easier match-up in the quarterfinals.[7] The duo was advanced to their quarterfinals, where they defeated Australia's Leanne Choo and Renuga Veeran. Bruce and Li finished in fourth place, the best Canadian finish in badminton at the Olympic Games.[6] In the singles event, Li was knocked out by Wang Yihan.[8]

2013–2014

In 2013, Li entered the finals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold, defeating Hong Kong top player Yip Pui Yin in the semi-finals, making her the first Pan-American athlete to ever enter into a singles final of a Grand Prix Gold event since that series began in 2007. In 2014, she also entered into the quarter-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships Super Series Premier, beating Tai Tzu-ying in the first round, making her, in 35 years, the first Canadian player to enter at least the quarter-finals of this prestigious tournament. Later in 2014, Li won the Canada Open Grand Prix, making her the first home player to win this title ever since it became a Grand Prix event.

Li won the gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, defeating Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the final.[9] She thus became the first Canadian woman to win a singles gold in Commonwealth badminton.[10] She also won the singles gold medal at the 2014 Pan Am Badminton Championships in her home city, Markham, later that year.

2015–2016

At the 2015 Pan American Games, Li successfully defended her title, defeating fellow Canadian Rachel Honderich in the final.[11]

In 2016, she qualified to represent Canada at the 2016 Summer Olympics but was defeated by P. V. Sindhu (21-19, 15-21, 17-21) and ranked 2nd in the group stage of women's singles.

Michelle also had several operations in 2016 to fix nagging injuries sustained earlier in her career. She took a year off in 2017 to heal from the operations and to focus on a comeback for 2018. After deeming herself fully fit, she entered the stage relatively quietly in 2018 until she made a landmark win against the 3rd seed Ratchanok Intanon in round 16 of the All England Open. She had not defeated Intanon previously. Michelle's progress was clear as she moved quickly around the court, playing much lighter on her feet than in previous years.

2017–2021

During the 2018 Thomas Uber Cup, Li again played well. She defeated India's Saina Nehwal, who she had not previously beaten, by 21–15, 16–21, and 16–21. Li spearheaded Canada to their first-ever Uber Cup quarterfinal, and she defeated Sung Ji-hyun (21–14, 21–15). Canada eventually lost 3–1 to South Korea. Li also won her first Macau Open title by defeating the Olypmic gold medalist, Li Xuerui (21-15, 21-18) in the quarterfinals in the same year.

In the 2019 Japan Open, Li played and defeated the No. 1 seed, Tai Tzu-ying (21–15, 15–21, 22–20), to reach the semis. She also reached another semi-finals in the 2019 Korea Open after defeating the No. 4 seed, Nozomi Okuhara (21-23, 21-16, 21-19). In the same year, she successfully defended her title again at the 2019 Pan American Games.

She qualified to represent Canada at the 2020 Summer Olympics but was defeated by Nozomi Okuhara (9–21, 7–21) in the round of 16.[12]

2022

In 2022, Li won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after defeating Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the semi-finals and losing to P. V. Sindhu in the final.[13] In the same year, Li also made a breakthrough in the 2022 BWF World Championships by defeating the eighth seed, Ratchanok Intanon, again in the round of 16. Though she eventually lost to the Olympic gold medalist and Chinese player Chen Yufei, it marked her first time getting into the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships since 2011.[14][15]

Achievements

Michelle Li

Commonwealth Games

Women's singles

More information Year, Venue ...

Pan American Games

Women's singles

More information Year, Venue ...

Women's doubles

More information Year, Venue ...

Pan Am Championships

Women's singles

More information Year, Venue ...

Women's doubles

More information Year, Venue ...

Mixed doubles

More information Year, Venue ...

Commonwealth Youth Games

Girls' doubles

More information Year, Venue ...

BWF World Tour (3 titles, 1 runner-up)

The BWF World Tour, which was announced on 19 March 2017 and implemented in 2018,[16] is a series of elite badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). The BWF World Tours are divided into levels of World Tour Finals, Super 1000, Super 750, Super 500, Super 300 (part of the BWF World Tour), and the BWF Tour Super 100.[17]

Women's singles

More information Year, Tournament ...

BWF Grand Prix (3 titles, 3 runners-up)

The BWF Grand Prix had two levels, the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It was a series of badminton tournaments sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and played between 2007 and 2017.

Women's singles

More information Year, Tournament ...
  BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament
  BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series (22 titles, 9 runners-up)

Women's singles

More information Year, Tournament ...

Women's doubles

More information Year, Tournament ...

Mixed doubles

More information Year, Tournament ...
  BWF International Challenge tournament
  BWF International Series tournament

Performance timeline

Key
W F SF QF #R RR Q# A G S B NH N/A DNQ
(W) won; (F) finalist; (SF) semi-finalist; (QF) quarter-finalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze medal; (NH) not held; (N/A) not applicable; (DNQ) did not qualify.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Career overview

More information Singles, Played ...

Individual competitions

  • Senior level
More information Events ...
More information Tournament, BWF Superseries / Grand Prix ...

Record against selected opponents

Record against Year-end Finals finalists, World Championships semi-finalists, and Olympic quarter-finalists. Accurate as of 19 September 2023[18]

More information Players, Matches ...

References

  1. [1]
    "Michelle Li Guadalajara profile". Canadian Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on October 31, 2011. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
  2. [2]
    "Michelle Li". Team Canada - Official Olympic Team Website. October 25, 2011. Retrieved June 27, 2021.
  3. [3]
    Mike Hayakawa (February 27, 2011). "Golden Markham athlete carries flag in closing ceremonies". YorkRegion.com.
  4. [4]
    "Pan Am Games: Canadian Trail". CBC Sports. October 19, 2011.
  5. [5]
    "Canada wins 5 golds at Pan Am Games". CBC News. October 20, 2011.
  6. [6]
    Lidell, Mackenzie (August 1, 2012). "Canada Gains from Badminton Scandal, Advances to Semis". CTV Olympics. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  7. [7]
    "8 Badminton Players Disqualified for Throwing Matches". CTV Olympics. Associated Press. August 1, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  8. [8]
    "Olympedia – Singles, Women". www.olympedia.org. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  9. [9]
    "Glasgow 2014: Scot Kirsty Gilmour misses out on badminton gold". BBC News Online. August 3, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  10. [10]
    "Commonwealth Games: Michelle Li wins historic badminton gold". CBC. August 3, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  11. [11]
    "Michelle Li wins gold in women's badminton at Pan Am Games". The Globe and Mail. July 16, 2015. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
  12. [12]
    ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Sports- (June 16, 2021). "Un record de huit Canadiens en badminton à Tokyo | Jeux olympiques". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved June 27, 2021.
  13. [13]
    Freeborn, Jeremy (August 8, 2022). "Michelle Li wins silver medal in women's badminton at 2022 Commonwealth Games". Canadian Sport Scene. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  14. [14]
    Lloyd, Owen (August 25, 2022). "Upsets characterise round of 16 at Badminton World Championships". Inside the Games. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  15. [15]
    Kng, Zheng Guan (August 26, 2022). "World champ blown away by Thai-phoon". New Straits Times. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  16. [16]
    Alleyne, Gayle (March 19, 2017). "BWF Launches New Events Structure". Badminton World Federation. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  17. [17]
    Sukumar, Dev (January 10, 2018). "Action-Packed Season Ahead!". Badminton World Federation. Archived from the original on January 13, 2018. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  18. [18]
    "Head to Head analysis – Michelle Li". Badminton World Federation. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
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