Having defeated Belgium’s Lianne Tan and Portugal’s Telma Santos, Iris Wang needed just one more win to advance to the women’s singles round of 16 stage. However, Li Xuerui, the reigning gold medal winner from China, was simply too much for her to hande. Wang lost the match 2-0, losing 21-16 and 21-12, eliminating her from further participation in the tournament.
She was the lone bright spot for the United States in the tournament as the mens doubles, womens doubles, and mixed doubles teams, all failed to record a win. Bowing out of the tournament with a 2-1 record, Wang will look to use this experience to continue to get better and perhaps go even further four years from now in Tokyo.