Women's badminton has seen a major shift in power as Carolina Marin of Spain beat li Xuerui, the defending Olympic champion from China.
Marin on Thursday won the first game of the semifinal match 21-14 then took the second 21-16. Marin will play for gold Friday against the winner of the other semifinal, either Japan's Nozomi Okuhara or PV Sindhu of India.
Marin is world No. 1 but her win is significant because China had been badminton's powerhouse, sweeping all five badminton gold medals at the 2012 london Games. li's gold was a very big part of that dominance.
Rio has seen China's best hopes regularly bounced, including Wang Yihan, the women's silver medalist in london.