OLYMPICS – One Li in, one Li out?

With less than a month to go before the Olympic Games kick off in London, two famous Li’s from China have made the news in very different ways.  The most important was the announcement from the Badminton World Federation (BWF) that Li Xuerui would be sent as China’s #3 women’s singles shuttler in place of Wang Shixian.  Perhaps even more surprising, however, was the report in the Jakarta Globe that Indonesia’s men’s singles coach Li Mao had left the nation’s training camp.

Li Xuerui’s inclusion was expected by many, including a near-majority of voters in a Badzine poll on the issue.  While Wang Shixian started the year on top of the podium at the million-dollar Victor Korea Open Superseries Premier, she has not won a tournament since and has lost to Juliane Schenk and to Saina Nehwal twice, in addition to losses to her compatriots.  Li Xuerui, after losing to Bae Youn Joo in Korea and to eventual winner Wang Yihan in Malaysia, then embarked on a six-tournament winning streak before losing the Djarum Indonesia Open Superseries Premier final to Saina.  Her efforts have also moved her to the world #3 spot, ahead of Shixian, since the Olympic qualification cutoff.

Li Mao’s situation in Indonesia is much less clear.  The Jakarta Globe article says that two players claimed that Li said his good-byes to Indonesian national team members but then quotes PBSI vice chairman I Gusti Made Oka as saying, “Li asked for a leave to visit his father who’s sick and dying in China. I don’t know when exactly he will be coming back, but he’ll be back at the [national training camp] before the Olympics start.”