Adrian Liu has no problem on a badminton court, but for the next few weeks, he'll try to navigate the new frontier of crowd-funding.
The Prince Rupert badminton star has started a 'gofundme' campaign with his men's doubles partner, Derrick Ng, to participate in the necessary worldwide tournaments required to make the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro. They're looking for $40,000.
Because of a clerical error by Badminton Canada, Liu and Ng were disqualified from the Pan Am Games in Toronto due to being registered for two simultaneous tournaments in the same week which, according to Badminton World Federation (BWF) rules, is prohibited.
Liu and Ng had no intention of attending the second tournament that they were registered for, but had been registered anyway.
Liu's main sponsor has pulled funding for the athlete, since the two lost many ranking points by not being a part of the Pan Am Games.
"Since it's the player's responsibility to pay for their own cost of living, flights, food, accommodations, entry fees, transportation and everything else in between, the cost of being a Canadian international badminton player quickly rises to astronomical figures. Your donation will help ease our minds and let us focus on what's important: training, competing and most importantly, winning," reads the 'gofundme' page.
Badminton Canada is looking into how the organization can help the duo, president Anil Kaul told CBC News.
"Some sort of financial support is what they require at the moment. What form and how we do that is still up in the air. They're not looking for handshakes and stuff, they're looking to get to events and try to qualify for the Olympics," Kaul told the outlet.
Liu and Ng are no slouches in the badminton men's doubles world. They rank 52nd in the world in BWF rankings as of July 30, despite not taking part in the Pan Am Games, which award points to most teams competing. They've also won five straight national men's doubles championships in Canada – a feat no team has ever accomplished. They took part in the 2015 Sudirman Cup in China and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
As of the afternoon of July 30, $8,140 had been raised for the athletes, with their next tourney approaching on Monday in Jakarta, Indonesia for the 2015 TOTAL BWF World Championships. They'll face Australia's Matthew Chau and Sawan Serasinghe in the first round.
To help fund Liu and Ng, visit www.gofundme.com/NG-LIU.