Li was embroiled in controversy during her first Olympics, albeit none of it directly affected her. After losing all three of their matches in the round robin round, she and Bruce came in last. However, the top four pairs—two from South Korea, one from Indonesia, and one from China—were eliminated for purposefully manipulating matches early in the competition in order to secure more advantageous draws later on. Li and Bruce were permitted to go to the quarterfinals, where they triumphed over a pair from Australia. While they were defeated by Japan in the semifinals, Canada’s best-ever badminton performance in the Olympics came in fourth place.