For millions in North America, it’s just a metronomic backdrop to summer barbeques. A game so decidedly simple you think: “I can play this with a beer in my hand.”

But in parts of Asia it’s a passion, played to the din of frenzied drumming before thousands of fans in million dollar tournaments.

That’s the version of badminton that Markham’s Michelle Li plays — the one she’ll bring to the London Olympics in July as Canada’s top female shuttlecock smasher.

But the shuttlecock is not all she wants to smash in London.

“I want to change the history of badminton in Canada,” Li says.

“I want to change the stereotypes of the game. It’s not going to be easy, but I’m going to try my best.”

Once considered a gentle pastime, played in the gardens of English gentry, the game has migrated to Asia, where it’s one of the most popular sports in many parts of India and China.

And Li considers it something of a mission to help popularize badminton in Canada.

“We’re trying to change how badminton is viewed in Canada. Nobody really knows badminton in Canada (just) hockey,” she says.

“All the Canadian athletes on the national team are trying to get good results so that more people will join.”

At just 20, badminton has taken Li to more than two dozen countries for tournaments and training and as the Olympics approach it’s consuming her life.

But she began the game in a typical fashion.

Li’s career was hatched at a church picnic, where her mother picked up a pair of rackets and handed one to her.

“And sometimes I would pick up a racket outside the house too, so it kind of did start out as a backyard sport.”

Seeing she had some talent, a family friend introduced the 11-year-old Li to the local Lee’s Badminton centre for lessons.

“And my whole perspective of the sport changed,” Li says.

Instead of a simple summer pastime, Li says she discovered a crackling fast, complex and strategic game that was worthy of her passion.

“There’s a huge level of difficulty and skill and there’s just so much variety in this sport,” the Hong Kong born athlete says.

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“There are so many styles of badminton that you can play.”

There are, Li says, offensive specialists bent on smashing the bird down into their opponent’s court.

Others play a more defensive style with the goal of getting everything back and running their opponents ragged.

“I mostly attack,” Li says. “I like to smash.”

Li, who is ranked number one in singles and doubles in Canada, won gold in both competitions at the Guadalajara Pan Am Games last fall.

And she’ll compete in the two again in London, where the powerful Asian teams are heavy favourites.

“Everyone is strong so to beat them all it will be tough,” she says.

“But I hope to definitely step out of the whole stereotype where (North) Americans always lose to Asians.”

Either way, though, London will be a thrill for the 20-year-old.

“It’s a dream all athletes kind of dream. It will be fun.”

Li took a two year hiatus from her University of Toronto life sciences studies to concentrate on badminton. And while she plans to return to school after London, she intends to go back to badminton full time in the lead up to the 2016 Games in Rio.

Eventually, she’d like to become a physician — but medical school will have to wait.