Great work by Michelle winning her third straight Pan Am WS championship, her first was 8 years ago in Guadalajara, 2nd was 4 years ago in Toronto and now in Lima.
Did Zhang Beiwen play? Sorry for asking you,... hold on, found the report here, I suppose she didn't participate https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1082989/canada-four-badminton-golds-lima-2019
Michelle has written an update on her website about the last few weeks. https://www.michelleli.net/2020/03/16/a-frustrating-time-of-the-year/#more-803
Good read, she also posted another update. Once again, being an independent athlete is penalizing her, mainly on the mental side. A lot of stress piling up on her with the organisation of each tournaments for her and her private team. Flights, hotels, trainings, injuries to manage and deal with and now Covid-19. Urg... she is doing amazing but obviously the logistics alone are hindering her potential as an athlete.
I wonder how difficult is it to make an agency for professional badminton player that can help with their papers and logistics
anyone can start an agency. for an individual athlete all you need is a part time personal assistant. the ?'n becomes how much can the athlete afford to pay them. same goes for an agency who might handle numerous athletes.
ohh please, that of course is what I mean An agency that takes care of the tasks that will be done by that personal assistant And in here, I am talking about an agency that handles numerous athletes so that the cost is pushed down to an affordable level for them Then the question remains: I wonder how difficult is it to make an agency for professional badminton player that can help with their papers and logistics.. And what I mean by this question is of course: is it feasible to have agency with affordable price for badminton player to help with their 'personal assistant matters'?
It could be feasible I think but very difficult to make a living out of it. For that, it means the agency should make some money to function, pay taxes, one salary (at least) and I doubt athletes would pay "just" for having someone taking care of those logistics issues. The main points that I think would hinder the functionment of an agency in badminton: 1. Not enough independent athletes at a high level. 2. Athletes would reward the agent based on a commission system but is there enough money in badminton to allow that extra outcome from athletes? Are the prize money big enough? If so how many independent players cash in some money during tournaments? 3. Most top athletes are taken in charge at a national level. Therefore, very few would seek an agent and only the less performing ones with less exposure. 4. An agent could help get some sponsors too. But are there any real sponsorships deals to catch in badminton to justify the cost of an agent? I'm sure it could be possible but I'm afraid it would not be viable for the agency at some level. Too few high level independent athletes and not enough money in badminton. I'm sure it could be possible to find a way to make it work but it seems difficult to me.
i contacted the players association rep a couple years ago and offered to do it for free for anyone who needs it. no response. why? i do not know. possibilities: there are so very few independent athletes in badminton in the top tier. how many can you name right now other than michelle li & beiwen zhang? the majority of the upcoming lower ranked players who are 'independent' now are trying to make/be chosen for their nat'l teams and won't need a rep. while being a lower ranked upcoming player you can't afford ANY extra expense. they're already operating in a deep deficit. who am i to them? they're new to the circuit and we do not know each other so why should they trust me? do we speak the same language? do i call myself an agency if the marketplace consists of 2 potential clients?
Tough to be at the Pro level in US and Canada in terms of lack of funding and sparring partners. Tough to be in other countries where there are better funding and support but too many high level competition to make the team.
@LenaicM Regarding financial, I was indeed thinking about how it can be overcome One possible way is naturally to have a company that is based in a low cost country, that is also one of the reason why BWF is located in Malaysia I guess Just look at the amount of work done by a group of fans in Indonesia, for the account of badmintalk. They even do much better job than BWF in making summary of tournaments, news, trivial informations, etc. And all of that is without being paid. Money is only a part of the issue I guess But even then, your experience is quite interesting @samkool . When you offerred your service no-one replied. I guess this is the main obstacle though: there is no enough market, or more specifically enough market with homogeneous need (considering the variation between countries and level of game). I do believe there are many more independent players at the lower level Combination between the financial, operational and credibility prevent an agency to be available for badminton. Pretty heavy indeed....
Is Michelle Li in a slump? When we last saw her in Thailand her performance was far from her best and she looked very tired in the last match against Kosetskaya. After that we have not seen her at tournaments, she didn't participate in the Pan Am Championships. Does anyone have any news?
Michelle Li narrowly gets through the semi finals and manages to clinch the 2022 Canada Open title (I was expecting Sung Shuo-yun to win it)
I may have missed, but I did not hear in the Canadian media about Michelle's winning the Canada open - at least in the TV news.