Michelle Li (badminton)

Michelle Li
Michelle Li at the 2017 Indonesia Open Superseries Premier
Personal information
Birth name	Michelle Li Man-shan
Country	Canada
Born	(1991-11-03) November 3, 1991 Hong Kong
Residence	Markham, Ontario, Canada
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	55 kg (121 lb)
Years active	2006
Handedness	Right
Coach	Jennifer Lee Mike Butler
Women's singles
Highest ranking	11 (13 November 2014)
Current ranking	13 (July 12th 2018)
Medal record Women's badminton Representing  Canada Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow Women's singles Pan American Games 2015 Toronto Women's singles 2011 Guadalajara Women's singles 2011 Guadalajara Women's doubles 2015 Toronto Women's doubles Pan Am Championships 2018 Guatemala City Women's singles 2014 Markham Women's singles 2014 Markham Mixed team 2013 Santo Domingo Women's singles 2013 Santo Domingo Mixed team 2010 Curitiba Mixed team 2008 Lima Mixed team 2010 Curitiba Women's singles 2010 Curitiba Women's doubles 2013 Santo Domingo Women's doubles 2008 Lima Mixed doubles Pan Am Women's Team Championships 2018 Tacarigua Women's team
BWF profile

Michelle Li (Chinese: 李文珊, Lǐ Wénshān) (born November 3, 1991) is a Canadian badminton player from Markham, Ontario.^[1] 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 Am Badminton Championships. As a competitor for Ontario, Li also won singles, doubles, and mixed team titles at the 2011 Canada Winter Games.

Early life and education

Michelle Li was born in Hong Kong to Chi Keung Li and Agnes Kwong, together with 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.

Career

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 then named the flag bearer for Team Ontario at the closing ceremonies for the games.^[2]

Later that year Li was the gold medal winner in the women's doubles event alongside Bruce at the 2011 Pan American Games.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[5]

In 2013, Li entered into 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 the 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.^[7] She thus became the first Canadian woman to win a singles gold in Commonwealth badminton.^[8]

At the 2015 Pan American Games, Li successfully defended her title, defeating fellow Canadian Rachel Honderich in the final.^[9]

Michelle had multiple surgeries in 2016 to fix naggling injuries sustained earlier in her career. She took a year off in 2017 to heal from the surgeries 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. Up until this point Michelle has never defeated Intanon. Michelle's progress was clear as she moved quickly around the court playing much lighter on her feet than her previous years.

During the 2018 Thomas Uber Cup, Li once again proved to her competitors she's a new force to reckon with. She defeated India's Saina Nehwal (21-15, 16-21, 16-21), an achievement as Li has never defeated Nehwal in the past. Li spearheaded Canada to their first ever Uber Cup semi-final and there she defeated Sung Ji Hyun (21-14, 21-15). Canada eventually lost 3-1 to Korea.

Achievements

Commonwealth Games

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2014	Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Scotland	Kirsty Gilmour	21–14, 21–7	Gold

Pan American Games

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2015	Atos Markham Pan Am Centre, Toronto, Canada	Rachel Honderich	21–15, 21–9	Gold
2011	Multipurpose Gymnasium, Guadalajara, Mexico	Joycelyn Ko	21–12, 21–13	Gold

Women's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2015	Atos Markham Pan Am Centre, Toronto, Canada	Rachel Honderich	Eva Lee Paula Lynn Obanana	11–21, 8–21	Bronze
2011	Multipurpose Gymnasium, Guadalajara, Mexico	Alex Bruce	Iris Wang Rena Wang	21–15, 21–15	Gold

Pan Am Championships

Women's singles

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2018	Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Rachel Honderich	21–15, 21–16	Gold
2014	Markham Pan Am Centre, Markham, Canada	Rachel Honderich	21–13, 21–16	Gold
2013	Palacio de los Deportes Virgilio Travieso Soto, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	Jamie Subandhi	21–8, 21–6	Gold
2010	Clube Curitibano, Curitiba, Brazil	Cee Nantana Ketpura	21–17, 17–21, 19–21	Silver

Women's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2013	Palacio de los Deportes Virgilio Travieso Soto, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	Grace Gao	Eva Lee Paula Lynn Obanana	21–16, 11–21, 6–21	Bronze
2010	Clube Curitibano, Curitiba, Brazil	Alex Bruce	Grace Gao Jocelyn Ko	21–16, 21–23, 12–21	Silver

Mixed's doubles

Year	Venue	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2008	Club de Regatas, Lima, Peru	Adrian Liu	Toby Ng Valerie Loker	14–21, 15–21	Bronze

BWF Grand Prix

The BWF Grand Prix has two level such as Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold. It is a series of badminton tournaments, sanctioned by Badminton World Federation (BWF) since 2007.

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2017	Dutch Open	Zhang Beiwen	16–21, 14–21	Runner-up
2017	U.S. Open	Aya Ohori	11–21, 19–21	Runner-up
2016	Canada Open	Zhang Beiwen	Walkover	Winner
2015	Canada Open	Kaori Imabeppu	21–17, 25–23	Winner
2014	Canada Open	Pai Yu-po	21–16, 23–21	Winner
2013	Macau Open	Pusarla Venkata Sindhu	15–21, 12–21	Runner-up

     BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament

     BWF Grand Prix tournament

BWF International Challenge/Series

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2017	Peru International	Disha Gupta	21–10, 21–10	Winner
2014	Czech International	Marija Ulitina	21–14, 21–17	Winner
2014	Belgian International	Karin Schnaase	11–6, 11–2, 11–6	Winner
2014	Peru International	Zhang Beiwen	25–27, 19–21	Runner-up
2013	Brazil International	Lohaynny Vicente	16–21, 21-15, 21-8	Winner
2013	Canadian International	Christin Tsai	21–14, 21–19	Winner
2013	Maldives International	Hana Ramadhini	21–8, 21–13	Winner
2012	Tahiti International	Nicole Grether	21–8, 21–13	Winner
2012	Peru International	Ai Goto	21–23, 21–14, 21–15	Winner
2012	Finnish Open	Yao Jie	20–22, 19–21	Runner-up
2011	Canadian International	Lianne Tan	21–14, 21–11	Winner
2011	Puerto Rico International	Anne Hald Jensen	21–13, 29–27	Winner
2011	Brazil International	Kana Ito	21–15, 21–15	Winner
2011	Guatemala International	Jeanine Cicognini	21–15, 21–13	Winner
2011	Dutch International	Susan Egelstaff	18–21, 21–13, 15–21	Runner-up
2010	Canadian International	Hitomi Oka	21–15, 12–21, 21–23	Runner-up
2010	Peru International	Manami Ebuchi	18–21, 17–21	Runner-up

Women's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2014	Czech International	Rachel Honderich	Irina Khlebko Elena Komendrovskaja	21–12, 21–17	Winner
2013	Peru International	Grace Gao	Joycelin Ko Christin Tsai	21–15, 21–18	Winner
2012	Tahiti International	Alex Bruce	Eva Lee Paula Lynn Obanana	13–21, 12–21	Runner-up
2012	Peru International	Alex Bruce	Nicole Grether Charmaine Reid	21–18, 21–18	Winner
2012	Finnish Open	Alex Bruce	Chow Mei Kuan Lee Meng Yean	21–19, 12–21, 21–16	Winner
2011	Canadian International	Alex Bruce	Nicole Grether Charmaine Reid	21–10, 13–21, 21–16	Winner
2011	Puerto Rico International	Alex Bruce	Grace Gao Joycelin Ko	24–22, 15–21, 21–11	Winner
2011	Brazil International	Alex Bruce	Eva Lee Paula Lynn Obanana	14–21, 17–21	Runner-up
2011	Brazil International	Alex Bruce	Iris Wang Rena Wang	11–21, 21–15, 21–8	Winner
2011	Banuinvest International	Alex Bruce	Sonia Olariu Florentina Petre	21–15, 21–14	Winner

Mixed doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2014	Peru International	Derrick Ng	Christian Yahya Christianto Eva Lee	16–21, 18–21	Runner-up
2013	USA International	Toby Ng	Halim Haryanto Ho Jing Yu Hong	21–16, 21–15	Winner
2013	Brazil International	Yang Chih-hsun	Phillip Chew Jamie Subandhi	13–21, 19–21	Runner-up

     BWF International Challenge tournament

     BWF International Series tournament

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michelle Li.

• Michelle Li at BWF.tournamentsoftware.com
• Michelle Li at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com
• Badminton Canada profile PDF
• Michelle Li at gc2018.com