After recovering from a serious knee injury that kept her out of the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Kara Solmundson and her mixed doubles partner Mike Beres were Canada's number-one ranked team internationally after the Olympic qualification period at number-18 in the world. The pair completed an unbelievable trek to make the Olympics competing at 20 different tournaments in the one-year qualifying period including a dozen in the final four months.

  "The qualifying process was insane and very stressful," said Solmundson, also an excellent singles player. "I don't know if I could do it again. But it seems like the more pressure there was, the stronger we played. With all the travelling we learned not to think about badminton all the time. We needed to have some kind of edge when we competed."

  Highlights for the pair, also a couple off the court, were second place at the 1999 world team trials and numerous international tournament wins including three straight victories in April 2000. A top-16 placing in either singles or mixed doubles in Sydney is her goal.

2000 Games
Sept. 16: Kara Solmundson, Winnipeg, lost 11-4, 11-4 to Lidya Djaelawijaya, Indonesia, in first round, eliminated.


2000 Games Badminton Coverage