In a country where ice hockey is king, Michelle Li wants to put badminton on the map in Canada.

As the country’s top badminton hope going into the London Olympics, the 20-year-old Toronto native leads a youthful team - average age 22 years and nine months - that is cautiously optimistic it can break the Asian dominance at the Games and win a medal.

Since badminton was made an Olympic sport in 1992, Canada hasn’t graced the medal podium.

The Hong Kong-born Li, however, represents Canada’s best chance in many years. Currently ranked world No. 24 in singles and 27th in women’s doubles with partner Alex Bruce, she will represent Canada in both events in London.

The country’s four-man team is rounded out by Toby Ng and Grace Gao in the mixed doubles.

They are among some high-powered Asian-Canadian athletes hoping to achieve Canada’s dream medal haul which will place the country for the first time in the top 12.

Canada will be represented by 277 athletes from nine provinces and one territory competing in 26 sport disciplines and supported by 93 coaches and a mission team of 137. More than half, or 155, of the Canadian athletes are women.

At 65 years of age, equestrian Ian Millar is the oldest athlete, while 15-year-old Victoria Moors, who will compete in artistic gymnastics, is the youngest.

Veteran triathlete Simon Whitfield was chosen as Canada’s flag-bearer for the July 27 opening ceremony.

A resident of the British Columbia capital of Victoria, 37-year-old Whitfield won the gold medal 12 years ago in the first-ever Olympic triathlon in Sydney, where he also carried Canada’s Maple Leaf flag into the closing ceremony. Whitfield earned silver in the same event at the last Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Other Canadian star athletes joining him in London include 27-year-old, two-time Olympic silver medalist, Quebec diver Alexandre Despatie, who will compete despite suffering a small concussion and a large cut on his head from a training accident in June, as well as fellow divers Jennifer Abel and Emilie Heymans - both also from Quebec - who are among Canada’s best bets to reach the podium.

Other Canadian medal hopefuls include:

31-year-old trampoline gymnast, Karen Cockburn, who won a bronze at the 2000 Summer Games, and took home silver in 2004 and 2008 making her the only trampolinist to win a medal at every Olympics at which the event was competed;

Adam van Koeverden, 30, who carried Canada’s flag at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Games, and holds three Olympic medals (a gold, silver and bronze) in the canoe-kayak event;

44-year-old equestrian jumper Eric Lamaze, who won gold in Beijing in the individual show jumping event but whose medal-winning stallion, Hickstead, died last year.

One athlete - cyclist Clara Hughes - could become Canada’s most decorated Olympian if she wins a medal. The 39-year-old, Winnipeg-born athlete won two bronze medals in cycling at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, and four medals, over three Winter Olympics, as a speed skater.

Several Canadian athletes heading to London also claim Chinese descent. Among them:

31-year-old Carol Huynh, whose father was born in China and who won Canada’s first gold medal in women’s freestyle wrestling at the Beijing Olympics;

Table tennis players Andre Ho, whose parents were born in China, and Eugene Wang and Mo Zhang, who were both born in China;

Hubei-born Grace Gao, Michelle Li, born in Hong Kong, and Tobias Ng, a first-generation Canadian born of Chinese parents, who will compete in badminton; and swimmers Victoria Poon, born in Hong Kong, and Tobias Oriwol, whose mother, Yuk Sin, is from the People’s Republic of China.

Speaking to Xinhua, Li said: “My preference are singles, but when I partner with Alex (Bruce) I think they’re both pretty even. I usually focus on singles, but when I’m on the doubles court I still have the same mentality. 

“I really just want to win, so I guess I’m good for both,” Li said in Richmond, British Columbia, at the Canada Open 2012, her final warm-up tournament before leaving for London next week.

“This is my first Olympics, so everything is still kind of new. I’m still slowly gaining my experience in tournaments and everything and I’m still going for Rio (in 2016). So I feel like when I reach to Rio I’ll be more experienced and I think I can peak there. But I hope to peak right now too because I think right now, at 20 to 21, is prime time for my body.”

Last year, Li demonstrated she could win at the international level at the Pan-American Games in Mexico when she won both the singles and women’s doubles with partner Bruce. So far this year, she’s picked up singles and doubles victories in Tahiti, Peru and Alberta, as well as another doubles win in Finland.

Over the past few months she said her focus has been on working on her fitness to develop more power and sharpening up every shot in her arsenal for greater consistency. With China’s Wang Yihan, Wang Xin, Li Xuerui and Wang Shixian currently the top ranked players in singles, Li knows her game will have to be elevated still if she is to get out the preliminary round in London.

While she is currently taking two years off of university to concentrate on badminton, she adds with no one expecting her to do anything at the Olympics, unlike some other players, there’s no pressure on her.

“All the top players there are expected to win so they always have that pressure, and definitely pressure from their country,” she said, noting there’s always upsets and Germany’s Juliane Schenk and Denmark’s Tine Baun have both beaten top Chinese shuttlers.

“I just want to perform my best and definitely there’s no pressure because no one is really expecting much from Canada. But I hope to do the best I can and definitely try to medal,” she said.

With an estimated two million people currently playing recreational badminton on a regular basis in Canada, according to Badminton Canada, Li said the sport is still a long way away from drawing the interest it receives in China and other Asian countries. With a good performance in London, however, she hopes to change that perception.

“I’ve been to China before when I was young to train, and just the atmosphere there in their training and everything is so different. When you talk to someone in the street about badminton they just get so excited, but here it’s just like ‘what’s badminton?’ But I hope to change that here because when I start bringing results back to Canada I think more people will start noticing the sport and then more juniors will start playing and the sport itself will grow and I hope I could help change that.”

At the last Summer Olympics four years ago, Canada took home 18 medals and placed 15th in overall medal count. The country’s best Olympic performance to date at a Summer Games happened 28 years ago when Canada won 44 medals, including 10 gold, in Los Angeles when the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the Games. 

– Xinhua/IANS