Wow.. Congrats on beating Carolina Marin in the Sudirman Cup.. Well Done!!! (Although the group lost to Spain..) Michelle Li - Carolina Marin 12-21 27-25 24-22
A little something for people who aren't from Canada... Canada doesn't support its athletes very well compared to countries like America, and if you don't play a mainstream sport like hockey or basketball then you either have to pay out of your own pocket or give up after you reach a certain level. In Michelle Li's case, I have heard that her family is well off. I have also heard that she takes out bank loans. However I know for sure that she's constantly holding fundraisers to pay for her expeditions. Michelle Li is definitely fearsome and trains her ass off so props to her. That being said, after you reach a certain level of badminton in Ontario, if you don't have money to burn you stop. The kids you hear about that move up the ranks in Canada usually come from pretty rich families. I'm not saying they don't work hard every day, however. Examples are Brittney Tam and Rachel Honderich. Jason Ho-Shue is an up and coming youngster who doesn't have his own funding. Instead, his coach Efendi pays for him to go play tournaments and on the flipside he only plays what and with whom Efendi tells him too. This started after his dad tragically passed away a few years ago. I have to say though, I have seen him train and he definitely grinds hard. Michelle Li is good. Lucky for her, the skill gap between our women and international women is significantly smaller than the skill gap between our men and international men. That being said, she would probably beat the best mens singles player in Canada under 10 points anyway. However there are many places where the competition and level of play is much higher where there are girls that completely out-class her. There aren't any sparring partners here in Canada for her so she is at a disadvangate when it comes to training. I remember seeing her train with a Chinese provincial team a long time ago.
That's a little sad to read, but that's life I guess. I only saw Michelle Li play for the first time about a year and a half ago, even then you could tell she had great potential. Great to see her develop her game now and start winning more tournaments. I think if she wants to really compete with the world's best, she needs to train elsewhere, because as you said, she doesn't have the sparring partners in Canada. Many players from smaller badminton countries have travelled to places like Denmark to compete in nation leagues and receive better training. I believe this is the route she needs to take, if she hasn't already - which she probably has to be fair.
I've known her to go abroad (particularly Denmark) to train during the off-seasons but that in itself is also very expensive. I remember someone quoiton $30K to go train for a month or so
You again [MENTION=122958]Caffrey[/MENTION] !!! You seem to have a great badminton knowledge!! I'm not surprised she hasn't gone to train in Denmark, but 30K a month is crazy!! I suppose as you mentioned earlier she the money from her rich family to pay for it I guess. Badminton in some countries is a rich person's game which obviously reduces the pool of talent available in those countries.
Haha.. I like to keep up I check forums when I take small breaks from work. It might be 30K for multiple months but I'm pretty sure its 1 month. But then the person I was talking to went to train with the international team. But then Michelle Li would probably do the same... Rich family + bank loans + many fundraisers
It actually costs her and those who compete in international tournaments around 65k a year for all the fees and training. (excluding those Demark ones.) and 80-90% of the money is for flights.
By the way this is Canadian money, everything in Europe is about 50% more expensive to us so $30K to us isn't as much to you... probably
You would think Jennifer would train her for free but apparently she doesn't Michelle also spent about 2+ extra years in university @ UofT because her badminton excursions held her back from her studies for a bit... so thats about +$16k
Its actually surprising to me too how little the coaching fees and team fees compare to airfares. But the number is from Jennifer.
You people comparing currencies. You probably forgot about Asian currencies. Here it would be much more expensive (to travel all over). So, instead she might train in china or hongkong or thailand etc. That would be cheaper compared to train in Denmark or anywhereelse. Am i right!
Well 65k a year is like a medium-ish paying job. It's quite a bit to pay and increasingly so if you don't have a job because you spend all your time training Kinda right except Thailand is (kind of? not too sure on stats) a third world-ish country and the training isn't super impressive compared to it's neighbors so no one goes there much (though it is dirt cheap), and to train in China is tough if you don't know someone who can pull strings to get you in to train with the people that are worth the money you will spend.
Just found an video of Michelle Li where she talks about the basics of the game and the common belief of badminton in countries like Canada and the USA. This is part of the build-up to the Pan-American games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkFbnGeQOaE
The Pan-Am games are nothing. The Canada Open is way tougher IMO. This year LCW is playing and I believe KKK&TBH are playing too or they might have dropped out
I agree with Caffrey. Canada Open is way tougher as the nations participating in the Pan-Am games aren't exactly elites in the badminton world.
Please do not be mistaken. She's a good player in the Women's, and highly ranked. However, I would not pay to watch badminton games for Pan-AM even though the facility is like a 10 minute drive from my house. The competition, imho, is just not there. Or there's no history (rivalry) amongst the players that are participating in this event. There's nothing intriguing or excitement in the Pam-Am games.