New Delhi. The streak of winning medals by Indian badminton players, which began in London Olympics (2012), came to an end after 12 years in Paris Olympics, which was a disappointment for the fans of this sport. Lakshya Sen had raised hopes of a medal by reaching the semi-finals of men’s singles, but despite being in a good position in the semi-finals and bronze medal match, his defeat was worrying.
While PV Sindhu, who won medals in Rio (2016) and Tokyo (2021), was expected to score a hat-trick in Paris, the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were considered the biggest contenders 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 crumbled under pressure.
Badminton also received a lot of support from the government during the Paris cycle of the Olympics, which included 13 national camps and 81 overseas acclimatisation tours, funded under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). The Mission Olympic Cell of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) allocated Rs 72.03 crore to 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 did not live up to expectations, highlighting the importance of tough competition and a strong mindset in Olympic competition. This importance of mindset was evident in Lakshya Sen’s matches. He failed to capitalise on a strong position against Viktor Axelsen in the semi-finals and then against Chinese Taipei’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match.
During this time, Sindhu received help of Rs 3.13 crore but she failed to advance beyond the pre-quarterfinals. Lakshya’s coach and former All England champion Prakash Padukone looked very upset with his defeat in two consecutive matches. He said, “I am a little disappointed because he could not complete it. I am disappointed that we could not win a single medal in badminton. The government, SAI and TOPS have done their job. Now the time has come for the players to also take some responsibility.” The unexpected defeat of the pair of former world number one player Satwik and Chirag was the most shocking because they were considered contenders for the gold medal.
The government had extended massive support to the athletes, 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 medallist at the last two Olympics, had a 12-member support team in Saarbrücken during her training ahead of the Games but failed to get past China’s He Bingjiao.
Satwik and Chirag won two titles in the four BWF World Tour Finals this year and won several medals in major events like the 2023 Asian Games, 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2023 Asian Championships. The government spent a total of Rs 5.62 crore on this Indian pair for the Paris cycle, but they were knocked out by Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarter-finals. After this defeat, their Danish coach Mathias Boe announced to quit coaching.
Prannoy, a World Championship (2023) and Asian Games bronze medallist, received Rs 1.8 crore for training, but chikungunya disrupted his practice before the Games. He lost to Lakshya in the pre-quarterfinals. Ashwini and Tanisha were backed by Rs 1.5 crore each but the pair failed to win any match in the group stage.
Lakshya displayed great determination and skill despite failure in the last two matches and finished fourth. His victories over Jonathan Christie of Indonesia and Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei were commendable. Despite being in a strong position, his defeat to champions Axelsen and Ji Jia exposed some major weaknesses. It remains to be seen whether the 29-year-old Sindhu maintains her fitness in the next Olympics to be held in Los Angeles in 2028. Along with the pair of Satwik and Chirag, Lakshya would like to make a strong comeback using the learnings from Paris. Given the emerging talents like Priyanshu Rajawat and the women’s doubles of Trisha Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, India’s badminton prospects remain promising for the next four years.