"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.