Bruce Li team's strange Olympic badminton journey ends in bronze medal match defeat

LONDON -- They weren't experienced enough, savvy enough or skilled enough. Frankly, they just weren't good enough. Canada's Alex Bruce and Michele Li looked outclassed in the women's doubles badminton bronze medal match Saturday morning at Wembley Arena, losing to Russia's Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova, 21-9, 21-10.

But they tried. As coach Ram Nayyar said: "They kept trying, and they kept trying, and they kept trying." They kept trying as the fans chanted "BRUCE!" and "LI!" They kept trying as the speakers blared "Kung Fu Fighting." They kept trying as things kept going against them -- Li diving with her racquet outstretched, trying to reach a shuttlecock that had clipped the net, only to see it fall to the court in front of her, just out of reach.

"No matter who you're up against, you should always believe in yourself and keep fighting for every point," Bruce said. "I mean, we tried today."

[Related: Team Bruce Li become Canada's overnight badminton sensations]

That is the moral of what has been one of the craziest stories of these Olympics so far. That is why Bruce and Li belonged here, and that is why they can leave with dignity.

Based on performance, the Canadians had no business playing for an Olympic medal. They are ranked 28th in the world. They make sacrifices and train hard, but unlike some of the others, they aren't pros consistently playing top competition. Not only did they lose all three of their round-robin matches, they failed to win a game.

They got a second chance only because of the "Shuttlecrock’’ scandal. They won their quarterfinal, but in the end, that only meant they got to go down valiantly in their semifinal, which meant they got to lose the bronze medal match, too. They lost to Sorokina and Vislova badly for the second time. They finished with a 1-5 record. They were eliminated from the same tournament twice.

"I guess we just weren't ready," Li said. "We really didn't want to disappoint people from Canada who are first watching this sport. I guess we couldn't really take the pressure."

You can look down your nose only so much at the women who were disqualified for tanking round-robin matches, trying to manipulate the elimination matchups. You have to win before a loss can be in your interest; it's not like the Canadians were in that position. And put yourself in the position of the Chinese, the Indonesians and the two Korean tandems. What if the format rewarded you or your country for losing? What if your coach told you to do it?

"It's impossible to say what actually happened behind closed doors," Bruce said. "So I definitely feel for them, and I can't imagine the feeling it is to be disqualified from a tournament."

[Slideshow: Canada's women's badminton team]

But the shame of the scandal is how ridiculously blatant the tanking was. This wasn't, say, a swimmer not going all-out in a heat, saving energy for the final. This was women serving into the net, whacking the shuttlecock out of bounds, trying to keep it in bounds when they should have let it go. It made a farce of a sport that is already a farce in many people's minds, leading to questions about badminton's place in the Olympics and endless jokes about backyard barbecues. What's next? Bocce?

And the great thing about the Canadians is how they showed badminton in a different light. Maybe badminton shouldn't be an Olympic sport. That's a legitimate debate for another day. But it is an Olympic sport now, and on that court, at least, it should be respected as one.

"Have you ever tanked a match?" Bruce was asked. "Would you?"

"Never," she said.

"Why not?"

"I guess it's just the way I was brought up, morally and ethically. It just wouldn't sit right with me just to go and purposely do something."

It wouldn't sit right with Li, either.

"Canadians, I think we're known for sportsmanship," Li said. "We fight for everything we can."

[Slideshow: Canada on Day 7]

These are young women, college students. Bruce, who’s off to the University of Western Ontario next month to study engineering, is 22. Li, who is re-enrolling in the science program at the University of Toronto, is 21. Bruce giggled when asked if she believed in Olympic idealism, perhaps knowing it might seem a little corny.

But Bruce grew up watching athletes like Clara Hughes, the speedskater/cyclist who pushed to the finish of her final Olympic race this week, talked about exhausting herself and then criticized the badminton players who didn't play to win. Bruce was proud to march in the Opening Ceremony behind the Canadian flag bearer, triathlete Simon Whitfield. As Bruce and Li played Saturday morning, another Canadian triathlete made news. Paula Findlay finished last, and she finished in tears.

But she finished.

"It's so inspiring, seeing everyone just grind to the end," Bruce said. "It gives me goosebumps."

The fans adopted Bruce and Li here. They chanted for Canada, and they chanted their names. A British voice yelled from the stands: "Let's go, Bruce Li! We love you!" The first time the speakers blared "Kung Fu Fighting," a British voice -- maybe the same one -- yelled from the stands: "Everybody loves Bruce Li fighting!" Bruce said she couldn't help but notice that. Even when Bruce and Li faced match point and had no hope of winning, the fans chanted, "CAN-A-DA!" After the match, "King Fu Fighting" played again, and Bruce waved to the crowd as she walked off the court.

Now, none of this happens if their last names don't become a play on kung fu star Bruce Lee, and there was a touch of mockery there, too. But generally it was all in good fun, and it's nice to think the Canadians were embraced because they fought when others didn't -- that they were not loveable losers, but athletes who did what Olympians are supposed to do: compete. "Obviously not coming away with a prize is tough," Nayyar said. "But again, I think the effort was there."

The most basic, most important thing.

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