Prakash Padukone, the legendary Indian badminton player, is set to travel as a mentor with the 15-member Indian badminton squad for the upcoming Paris Olympics, starting on July 26. This will be a unique experience for Padukone, who, while the first Indian to win the All England Championship, retired in 1991, even before badminton was introduced to the Olympics at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
The decision to bring Padukone onboard comes after Lakshya Sen, a product of the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA), and P.V. Sindhu, who announced Padukone as her mentor ahead of the Games after shifting her base to Bengaluru from Hyderabad, expressed their desire to have him as part of the team. Sindhu, preparing for her third Olympics, has been a vocal advocate for Padukone’s guidance and experience.
The Indian contingent, which includes seven players and eight support staff, will be led by a seasoned coaching team. Pullela Gopichand, India’s national chief coach, will be joined by RMV Gurusaidutt, who has been training HS Prannoy, Agus Santosa, Vimal Kumar, and Mathias Boe, who is the coach for the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and the women’s doubles combination of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto. Vimal Kumar is currently training Lakshya, while Agus has been training Sindhu in Bengaluru.
The team will also be accompanied by two physiotherapists: Zeinia Samar and Kiran Challagundla. Kiran has been a long-time physio for the Indian badminton team, while Zeinia joined Sindhu’s camp after her decision to move to Bengaluru in pursuit of an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic medal.
In the previous Olympics, India’s chief coach Gopichand had opted not to travel to Tokyo due to restrictions on the number of officials accompanying athletes in light of the COVID-19 situation in 2021. This time, the team will be looking to continue its medal-winning tradition following the silver and two bronze medals won by Indian shuttlers in the past three editions of the Games.
The badminton events at Paris will begin on July 27 and conclude on August 5, promising exciting action and a chance for the Indian team to make their mark on the world stage.
