#365DaysOfWriting — Day 102
PV Sindhu and the pressure of winning an Olympic Gold
I’m currently watching a repeat of the semi-final between PV Sindhu and Nozomi Okuhara at Rio 2016.
This was an opponent who’d had the better of Sindhu in their last three meetings. But today, Sindhu was on a different plane. The drop shots she executed, and the way she made use of height to reach the shuttle — she played some nearly godlike badminton to beat Okuhara and reach the finals.
Sindhu uses her height to great advantage.
She creates drop shots and cross court winners others can only dream of. Her reach is her biggest asset. I’ve also noticed that she’s a lot more attacking than Nehwal — even her defensive play wins her points at times!
There’s also the quiet, confident guidance of Gopichand.
I have a lot of respect for that man. India’s second winner of the All England Badminton Championships (in 2001), and a man who turned down a lucrative advertising contract from Pepsi because it went against his principles and the principles of sport in general — athletes aren’t allowed to take fizzy drinks. He’s been behind India’s badminton resurgence in the last 10 years — starting with Saina Nehwal, to Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth and now PV Sindhu.
We must also thank Olympic Gold Quest.
Viren Rasqinha, Leander Paes, Vishwanathan Anand, Geet Sethi — these are a few of the many illustrious names behind the OGQ project. Thanks to them, we have been winning medals in competitions all over the world, especially in the Olympics. 2016 hasn’t been a good year, but if all goes well, Sindhu might return with the Gold we have craved for since Abhinav Bindra’s standout performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The final may be Sindhu’s toughest test yet.
She’s facing World No. 1 Carolina Marin of Spain. Marin beat the gold medallist from 2012, Li Xuerui. But here’s the catch — neither Carolina nor Sindhu has won an Olympic Gold medal yet. So it is actually a clash of equals.
Not quite though, is it? PV Sindhu has the prayers and well wishes of a billion people behind her. So Carolina is fighting against a billion people, not Sindhu alone. And it is on this, that lies the hope for that elusive gold medal. While that still won’t change the fact that India have had a poor 2016 Olympics, it is still a step in the right direction for Indian sport.
