Canadian Olympic shuttlers of Chinese descent

OTTAWA - Grace Gao started playing badminton at the age of 10 in Beijing. Twelve years later, she will be one of four badminton players who will represent Canada at the Summer Olympics in London just over two months from now.

The Hubei-born athlete joins Michelle Li and Tobias Ng - who are also of Chinese descent - and Alexandra Bruce, all of whom won medals at last year's Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

(From L to R) Grace Gao, Tobias Ng, Alexandra Bruce and Michelle Li pose for a photo call during an activity in Canada, May 18, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

Gao told Xinhua that competing at the Olympics has been her dream since she watched televised coverage of the Summer Games in her hometown four years ago.

"I am very proud and extremely honored to be able to represent Canada," said Gao, who immigrated to Canada with her family in 2004.

To vie for a berth on Canada's Olympic team, Gao took two years off from her studies in biological sciences at the University of Calgary. She plans on pursuing kinesiology once she returns to the classroom.

For now, though, the 58-kg badminton player, who stands 168cm, is training between five and six hours a day, both on and off the court.

Gao's discipline has already paid off.

Badminton Canada has named her the most valuable player in 2007, 2009 and 2012. Last year, she won a bronze medal in women's doubles at the Pan Am Games and a gold in the mixed doubles event with 26-year-old Ng, who will compete with her in the same event at the Olympics.

The pair won their first major title together in 2009 when they claimed the mixed-doubles title at the Pan Am Badminton Championships.

Vancouver native Ng is a first-generation born Canadian of Chinese parents.

Li, 20, who was also born in Hong Kong, will be competing in both the singles and doubles (with Bruce) events - the same events for which she captured double gold at last year's Pan Am Games.

A resident of the Toronto-area community of Markham, which has a significant Chinese-Canadian population, Li is also the top-ranked singles player in Canada and sits at No 22 in the Badminton World Federation rankings.

Although Bruce, who shared gold with Li last year at the Pan Am Games, might not also share the same cultural background with Li and her other two teammates, they have a language in common.

"I can speak Mandarin, and Toby and Michelle can speak in Cantonese, so our default language is English," said Gao.