Michelle Li

One of Li's early notable performances came at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There she won gold in the women's singles event and followed that performance with a gold in the doubles event with Alexandra Bruce. Due to this success, she was named the flag bearer for Team Ontario at the closing ceremonies for the games.

Later that year, Li was the gold medal winner in the women's doubles event alongside Bruce at the 2011 Pan American Games. Li would then go on the next day to win the women's singles competition, completing a second games double gold appearance that year, this time in Guadalajara.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Bruce and Li finished last in the round-robin portion of the women's doubles tournament, losing all three of their matches. However, the top two teams in the group were disqualified for attempting to intentionally lose matches so they would have an easier match-up in the quarterfinals. The duo was advanced to their quarterfinals, where they defeated Australia's Leanne Choo and Renuga Veeran. Bruce and Li finished in fourth place, the best Canadian finish in badminton at the Olympic Games. In the singles event, Li was knocked out by Wang Yihan.

In 2013, Li entered the finals of the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold, defeating Hong Kong top player Yip Pui Yin in the semi-finals, making her the first Pan-American athlete to ever enter into a singles final of a Grand Prix Gold event since that series began in 2007. In 2014, she also entered into the quarter-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships Super Series Premier, beating Tai Tzu-ying in the first round, making her, in 35 years, the first Canadian player to enter at least the quarter-finals of this prestigious tournament. Later in 2014, Li won the Canada Open Grand Prix, making her the first home player to win this title ever since it became a Grand Prix event.

Li won the gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, defeating Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the final. She thus became the first Canadian woman to win a singles gold in Commonwealth badminton. She also won the singles gold medal at the 2014 Pan Am Badminton Championships in her home city, Markham, later that year.

At the 2015 Pan American Games, Li successfully defended her title, defeating fellow Canadian Rachel Honderich in the final.

In 2016, she qualified to represent Canada at the 2016 Summer Olympics but was defeated by P. V. Sindhu (21-19, 15-21, 17-21) and ranked 2nd in the group stage of women's singles.

Michelle also had several operations in 2016 to fix nagging injuries sustained earlier in her career. She took a year off in 2017 to heal from the operations and to focus on a comeback for 2018. After deeming herself fully fit, she entered the stage relatively quietly in 2018 until she made a landmark win against the 3rd seed Ratchanok Intanon in round 16 of the All England Open. She had not defeated Intanon previously. Michelle's progress was clear as she moved quickly around the court, playing much lighter on her feet than in previous years.

During the 2018 Thomas Uber Cup, Li again played well. She defeated India's Saina Nehwal, who she had not previously beaten, by 21–15, 16–21, and 16–21. Li spearheaded Canada to their first-ever Uber Cup quarterfinal, and she defeated Sung Ji-hyun (21–14, 21–15). Canada eventually lost 3–1 to South Korea. Li also won her first Macau Open title by defeating the Olympic gold medalist, Li Xuerui (21-15, 21-18) in the quarterfinals in the same year.

In the 2019 Japan Open, Li played and defeated the No. 1 seed, Tai Tzu-ying (21–15, 15–21, 22–20), to reach the semis. She also reached another semi-finals in the 2019 Korea Open after defeating the No. 4 seed, Nozomi Okuhara (21-23, 21-16, 21-19). In the same year, she successfully defended her title again at the 2019 Pan American Games.

She qualified to represent Canada at the 2020 Summer Olympics but was defeated by Nozomi Okuhara (9–21, 7–21) in the round of 16.

In 2022, Li won a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after defeating Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the semi-finals and losing to P. V. Sindhu in the final. In the same year, Li also made a breakthrough in the 2022 BWF World Championships by defeating the eighth seed, Ratchanok Intanon, again in the round of 16. Though she eventually lost to the Olympic gold medalist and Chinese player Chen Yufei, it marked her first time getting into the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships since 2011.

In the 2023 BWF World Championships, Li retired from the competition owing to aggravating knee injury. This resulted in her absence from the remaining competitions of the BWF circuit and missing the 2023 Pan American Games in the same year. She made her comeback by entering the semi-finals in the 2024 German Open after beating the fourth seed, Pornpawee Chochuwong (21-19, 21-18).

She qualified to represent Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics but was defeated by Akane Yamaguchi (24-22, 17-21, 12-21) and ranked 2nd in the group stage of women's singles.