PV Sindhu: Her journey from idolising Pullela Gopichand at the age of 8 to becoming World no 2

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, who is also commonly known as PV Sindhu, became the household name in India after she brought the Olympic silver medal home in Badminton at Rio Olympic 2016 finale. PV Sindhu is one of the two players who had won a medal in the Olympics. Other than PV Sindhu, shuttler Saina Nehwal had also won the Olympic medal for India. Sindhu is also the youngest India player to make a podium finish in an individual event at the Olympics. She is also the only shuttler to make India enter the final of Olympics.

So how was her journey form qualifying in Olympics to becoming the heartbeat of Indians? PV Sindhu was trained by none other than Pullela Gopichand, who has no tolerance when it comes to discipline. Someone had rightly said 'there is no pleasure of life, in the pursuit of excellence.' During her training period for winning a medal for our country, Sindhu's coach Gopichand had taken away her cell phone and she was not even allowed to eat ice cream when she was training to become one of the best shuttlers in the world.

At the age of 21, she started her journey and became a perfect student of Gopichand. PV Sindhu entered the tournament as the world’s number 10th and she left the tournament as the first runner-up. In the tournament, she had shown her ability to the world by sending back three players home, whose ranking was way better than her. PV Sindhu first defeated Tzu Ying Tai (World number 8) in the prequarters and then Wang Yihan (World number 2) in last eight. By defeating Nozomi Okuhara (World number 6) she claimed the Silver medal in the final.

PV Sindhu is the only shuttler of India who had won Korea Open Super Series in 2017, in the same year Sindhu was also able to grab the silver medal in the BWF World Championships. PV Sindhu stunned the world in September 2012, when she made her spot in the top 20 of the BWF World Ranking, after that she never turned back and started her journey to rule the world.

Even though the Sindhu's parents were professional volleyball players yet she picked badminton over volleyball because she was inspired from Pullela Gopichand (who is also her coach). Sindhu started to play just at the age of 8.

In the year 2009, Sindhu stunned the world by winning the bronze medal at the 2009 Sub-Junior Asian Badminton Championships held in Colombo. After a year in 2010, she won the silver medal in the single category at Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge.

PV Sindhu had won many awards including Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour of India in 2016, Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India in 2015 and Arjuna Award in 2013. Sindhu had also become the FICCI Breakthrough Sportsperson of the Year 2014.

The star badminton player has forced the cricket-loving country to fall in love with Badminton with her fierce performance, she also managed to inspire many with her win in Olympics to dream big. PV Sindhu is currently at the second spot in BWF World Ranking. No matter what is her ranking in the world BWF ranking, she will always be number one in our eyes.