I Have a Long Way To Go

Having achieved her goal of winning an Olympic medal, P. V. Sindhu says that SHE IS NOT THE ONE TO REST ON HER LAURELS. “The efforts will be there to keep improving. As we face new challenges, we will work accordingly for better results. The most important thing is to be injury-free, and one of my goals is to become the World No. 1,” she tells

- V. V. Subrahmanyam

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu’s transformation is complete. From the time she showed glimpses of her talent by winning her first State level under-10 title to the silver medal in the Rio Olympics recently, Sindhu has come a long way. She has grown in stature too.

The 21-year-old badminton star, the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the Olympics, spoke to Sportstar on arrival from Rio. 

Excerpts: 

Question: You are the toast of the nation after winning the silver medal at Rio 2016. How has your journey been in the world of badminton?

Answer: When I started playing badminton, I never dreamt of playing in the Olympics. The effort and focus then was on becoming a good player who can win titles at the national level. But after I joined the Gopichand Academy eight years ago, I started looking at things differently. Slowly my goals started changing with every passing month. I am glad that I am in the best academy and under the best coach, Gopi Sir. I am fortunate to have someone like him as my coach.

Gopichand was on record that he had a hunch that you might win an Olympic medal this time. Did you ever feel that Rio was the best chance for you to win a medal?

When I reached Rio, my aim was to take one match at a time, which is my normal approach to any event — be it the Nationals, the Super Series or the World Championships. The important thing here was that the preparations were very good before we left for Rio. There were many areas that Gopi Sir worked on, with valuable inputs from our physio Kiran and the SAI athletics coach, Ramesh Sir. I knew the draw was very tough, but I always had the feeling that nothing was impossible if I stay focussed and played to my full potential.