PULLELA GOPICHAND - The Unsung Hero

"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up"

- Babe Ruth

The man behind the success of Indian shuttlers for recent times ,who proved himself as a real champ by giving us two back to back Olympic medals in recent years.

ACHIEVEMENTS :

In his sports' career he achieved 5th as his career's best ranking.
He won NATIONAL BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIP 5 times in a row also won two gold and one silver medals at INDIAN NATIONAL GAMES.
He won a silver in the team event and a bronze in men's singles in 1998 COMMONWEALTH GAMES.
In 2001, he won the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships at Birmingham.
Then, he defeated world's number one player Peter Gade in the semi-finals before defeating CHEN HONG of China.
He became the second Indian to achieve the feat after Prakash Padukone, who won in 1980.
But he becomes more familiar to us through his coaching skills and achievements.
After retiring from his playing career, Pullela Gopichand founded the Gopichand Badminton Academy in 2008, Nimmagadda Prasad, a renowned industrialist donated ₹50 Million on a condition to win a medal for India at Olympics in badminton .
And the rest is “HISTORY”.We all know that what had happened next.Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu have won bronze and silver respectively in Olympic women’s singles.
Gopichand also served as the official Indian Olympic Badminton Team coach at the 2016 Brazil's Rio Olympics.
He is a true Indian idol.
He gained the faith of Nimagadda and also makes INDIA proud in the history of Olympic badminton.

STRUGGLE:

He is now feeding his athletes what he had been starved off: ready inputs, strategy, an on-court Pentium processor, knowledge and an incredible mind off the court.
The fact is that he had been at his peak — in his games physically — but didn't get the support at Sydney 2000.
The national coach hadn’t bothered to recce his opponent’s game, and in the third round, Gopichand went down to Indonesian H Hendrawan.
He might have looked back to the chair looking for crucial answers at important junctures — how players look pleadingly because the mad rush of the game means they can’t process it all — but nothing useful was forthcoming then.
He has a coaching philosophy learnt the hard way as an athlete, that helps his students very much in their matches.
Sachin Tendulkar recently presents him a car for his achievement in Olympics. So personally I feel that a coach is not less important than the player who actually motivates his/her to achieve the Goal and GOPI is a true champ, who never gives up.

Life is a sport ,make it a count.