The medal winning streak of Indian badminton players, which started from the London Olympics (2012), came to an end after 12 years in the Paris Olympics, which was a disappointment for the fans of this sport. Lakshya Sen had raised hopes of a medal by reaching the men’s singles semi-finals but despite being in a good position in the semi-finals and the bronze medal match, his defeat was worrying. PV Sindhu, who won medals in Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2021), was expected to score a hat-trick in Paris, while the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was considered the biggest contender for the medal. Along with these players, the pair of HS Prannoy in men’s singles and Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto in women’s doubles also disintegrated under pressure.
Badminton also received significant support from the government during the Paris cycle of the Olympics, which included 13 national camps and 81 overseas conditioning tours. These were spent under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). The Mission Olympic Cell of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) allocated Rs 72.03 crore for badminton, the second highest amount out of the nearly Rs 470 crore spent across 16 sports for India’s Olympic preparations. Despite this huge investment, the results in Paris fell short of expectations, further highlighting the importance of tough competition and a strong mentality in Olympic competition.
This importance of mentality was seen in Lakshya Sen’s matches. He failed to capitalize on his strong position against Viktor Axelsen in the semi-finals and then against Chinese Taipei’s Li Ji Jia in the bronze medal match. During this period, Sindhu got help of Rs 3.13 crore but she failed to progress beyond the pre-quarterfinals. Lakshya’s coach and former All England champion Prakash Padukone looked quite upset after Lakshya’s defeat in two consecutive matches. “I’m a little disappointed he couldn’t finish it,” he said. I am disappointed that we could not win a single medal in badminton. Government, SAI and TOPS have done their work. Now the time has come that players should also take some responsibility.
The unexpected defeat of the pair of former world number one players Satwik and Chirag was the most shocking as they were considered contenders for the gold medal. The government had extended massive support to the players, with Rs 26.60 lakh and Rs 9.33 lakh sanctioned for Sindhu and Lakshya’s training in Germany and France respectively. Sindhu, a silver and bronze winner at the last two Olympics, had a 12-member support team in Saarbrucken during training ahead of the Games, but she failed to surpass China’s He Bingjiao.
Satwik and Chirag had won two titles in four BWF World Tour Finals this year and won several medals at major events such as the 2023 Asian Games, 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2023 Asia Championships. The government spent a total of Rs 5.62 crore on the Indian pair for the Paris cycle, but they were ousted by Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarter-finals. After this defeat, their Danish coach Mathias Bo announced his decision to quit coaching. Prannoy, a bronze medalist at the World Championships (2023) and Asian Games, received Rs 1.8 crore for training, but chikungunya disrupted his practice before the Games. They had to face defeat by Lakshya in the pre-quarterfinals.
Ashwini and Tanisha received support of Rs 1.5 crore each but the pair failed to win any match in the group stage. Despite failure in the last two matches, Lakshya displayed great spirit and great skill and finished fourth. His wins over Indonesia’s Jonathan Christie and Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen were commendable. Despite being in a strong position, their defeats to champion Axelsen and Ji Jia exposed some major weaknesses. It remains to be seen whether 29-year-old Sindhu maintains her fitness in the next Olympics to be held in Los Angeles in 2028. Along with the pairing of Satwik and Chirag, Lakshya would like to make a strong comeback using the lessons learned from Paris. India’s badminton prospects remain promising for the next four years with emerging talents like Priyanshu Rajawat and the women’s doubles pair of Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.
