Why PV Sindhu’s Olympic silver is a golden opportunity for Indian sport

Sindhu didn’t lose the match, she won a medal that will inspire gen-next

WrittenBy:T S Sudhir
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PV Sindhu won the silver medal at the Rio Olympics, the first ever for India in badminton. For every Indian, a proud moment.

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An hour later, Sindhu won the Rajinikanth medal, when the Superstar tweeted that he has become a great fan of Sindhu. For a south Indian, that honour was worth its weight in gold.

Jokes apart, Sindhu did something very Rajini-esque. When was the last time you saw deserted streets, with people glued to TV sets at home to watch a badminton match live? Or specially-arranged, large plasma screens in public parks, cheering every point won by Sindhu? It was like India had mass converted to a new sporting religion. Support for India’s daughter had galvanised the nation, with #GoldforSindhu trending as though it was Akshaya Tritiya.

How Sindhu and India interpret the result is important. Sindhu did not lose the match; she won the silver medal. That would be a more positive way of looking at the result, to be able to inspire her and gen-next that the gold is just a medal away.

It is also a certificate for the ecosystem that coach Pullela Gopichand has put in place, which frowns upon shortcuts to success. In Gopi’s book, planning is key and executing the plan is even more critical. How Sindhu was managed minutely is textbook champion stuff that needs to serve as a manual for budding athletes.

“The first thing I will do is to return Sindhu’s mobile phone, which has been with me all these days. I also did not allow her to eat sweet yoghurt and ice cream. Now she can eat whatever she wants,” said a smiling Gopi after the match. It was also after a week that Gopi was beaming. The weight of expectations, not just from over a billion people, but his own, had put enormous pressure on coach-student duo, especially after Sindhu got into the semi-finals.

“The last week has been very good for me. I am very excited to have achieved this. It was an honour to see the national flag go up,” said Sindhu. The tricolour was a permanent fixture on her yellow dress during the tournament. She ensured it got its right place under the Brazilian sun.

Rewind 16 years and the story was very different. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Gopi lost in the pre-quarters because he did not have a masseur to help him after his previous match, which was a tough game. Gopi went into the pre-quarters sore and came out feeling sore, with the way India managed its sports.

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The following year, even though Gopichand won the All-England championship, he was unhappy that it had come too late in life for him. He was 27 then.

“People keep saying there is no system in India. I think to say nothing works in the country is the easy way out. To say I will fight and make it work is the right thing to do,” said Gopichand.

The system put in place in Hyderabad now, with the Pullela Gopichand Academy, has meant it has now managed to produce a champion at 21. Even though India is depressed that it did not strike gold, the silver lining is that the 160-odd strong badminton talent at the Hyderabad facility now have three huge role models in Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth.

Inspired by Gopi’s triumph in Birmingham, some 17,000 boys and girls took to the shuttle sport in Andhra Pradesh. Parupalli Kashyap, Nehwal and Srikanth all belong to that crop of badminton enthusiasts. Nehwal with her success in different super series tournaments and the London bronze ushered in the second revolution. This time, the revolution will not be confined to a Telangana, Andhra or south India. Sindhu’s spirited Rio challenge has meant the surge that will be witnessed now will not be limited by geography. The challenge for the sports mandarins is to tap the talent and find many more players with potential.

When Nehwal won the London bronze in the 2012 Olympics and Sindhu won the bronze twice at the World championship in 2013 and 2014, the media built up the narrative of a ‘Saina vs Sindhu’ rivalry. Gopi looked at it differently. “I would see it as Saina and Sindhu, helping each other grow and compete better.”

That, of course, was also said before Nehwal chose to walk away from Gopi in 2014, unhappy that the coach was unable to give her personal attention as there were too many players competing for his time. Gopi’s support staff was extremely unhappy with the manner in which Saina exited the academy. The determination with which Gopi approached Sindhu and Srikanth’s preparation for Rio was proof that he was hurt and wanted to prove a point. That he is capable of creating champions. The personal affront, though he is too dignified to admit so in public, played a part in pushing him to give it all.

The other big takeaway from the Rio badminton courts is the decimation of China. The country that was the world’s badminton powerhouse till the last Olympics in London, figured nowhere on the podium in the women’s singles. With the breaching of the Great Wall of Chinese badminton, the world order has changed. And ‘Sindhustan’ has a place in the new pantheon of badminton greats.

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