Indian badminton star PV Sindhu is leaving no stone unturned to create history by winning a medal in the third consecutive Olympic Games and to achieve her goal, she has practiced hard in different ways in the last few months. Sindhu won silver medal in Rio Olympics and bronze medal in Tokyo Olympics. If she succeeds in reaching the podium in the Paris Olympics, then she will become the first Indian player to complete a hat-trick of medals. Sindhu has not been in good form for quite some time but said that spending the last eight months with Prakash Padukone has boosted her confidence and she is ready to win her third consecutive medal.
Sindhu said after the practice session at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, ‘Winning a medal is definitely my goal. It doesn’t matter whether it is first, second or third. I have won two medals and I don’t want to put pressure on myself by thinking about the third medal. She said, ‘Whenever I participate in the Olympics, it is a new Olympics for me. Therefore, whenever I go to play in the Olympics, my aim is to win a medal. Hopefully I will complete the hat-trick soon.
Couldn’t go very high in practice…
Before coming to Paris, Sindhu practiced at the Sportcampus Saar in Saarbrucken, Germany where the altitude, weather and conditions are similar to those in the French capital. To adjust to the conditions, she created a hypoxic chamber (low oxygen) in her room and slept there for a few days. Hypoxic chambers help prepare a player’s body for playing at high altitudes. Sindhu said, ‘I could not go to high altitude places for practice. I didn’t have a lot of time and so I thought it would be better to create that kind of conditions here rather than going somewhere else.
What new learned from Prakash Padukone
The star Indian player said that she has improved her strokes and is performing better than before in long rallies. Sindhu was asked what difference she felt from practicing with Padukone, she said, ‘Having a lot more confidence in the stroke. There are now very long rallies and long matches in women’s singles and I have prepared myself for them. He said, ‘Against every opponent you have to adopt a different style and it is important to hit the right strokes at the right time. Prakash sir insisted on this and we worked on it. There has been a lot of improvement. You will see this on the court.
