There are various methods to interpret Prakash Padukone’s blunt evaluation of the efficiency of Indian athletes, although his focus was on badminton returning with no medals. Mercifully, the one man who this was meant for, later said he was “decided to replicate on what went flawed and the place I want to enhance.” Lakshya Sen knew the bronze was there for the taking, and he couldn’t nail it down. He’s self-aware and never significantly silly to not understand it was a chance badly missed.
Shuttlers – the very previous and the younger elite alike – actually aren’t too keen on theatrics and public meltdowns, be it once they break up with coaches or when coaches truthfully lay out the details, publish failures. You’ll not get a “you might be nonetheless a winner” platitude from Padukone, Vimal Kumar or Pullela Gopichand, as a result of their time and mindspace is closely and obsessively invested in getting the shuttlers to win internationally, planning, plotting and scything by way of severely tough enjoying fields. They neither mince phrases, nor sugarcoat what must be carried out to mud up from defeats and begin the grind once more. It’s why India had three medals from three Olympics and 10 straight World Championship medals each single version since 2011.
Lacking a medal within the 2024 Olympics, regardless of receiving the best monetary and training assist, will sting at the very least until the following Olympic medal is secured. Satwik-Chirag and Lakshya Sen are bona-fide successes on the worldwide circuit and can carry ahead their ambitions, and the likes of Priyanshu Rajawat and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand might want to step up, and ship within the subsequent Olympic cycle.
Paris: India’s Lakshya Sen (blue) in the course of the Males’s Singles Semifinal badminton match in opposition to Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen on the 2024 Summer time Olympics, in Paris, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (PTI Picture/Ravi Choudhary)
However Padukone’s disappointment and urgency in hauling up Sen, quickly after his bronze playoff loss, must be understood within the context of a bigger actuality. The boys’s singles circuit is extremely aggressive and can stay extraordinarily robust to crack even in coming years. HS Prannoy was the one Indian singles male to win a Tremendous 500 stage title within the final two years, Sen was tending to myriad accidents and never in kind for many half.
His defensive sport fashion is dazzlingly gritty, however so bruising and brutal on his physique, that he can’t be anticipated to be a year-round workhorse aiming for each title. One nasty again / shoulder damage can set him again by years. His health simply gained’t allow a round-the-year calendar. Sen might want to prioritise Olympics over senseless pursuit of Tour titles and factors, similar to PV Sindhu did in her early years.
Having peaked for the Olympics, he did effectively to achieve semifinals. A possibility to combat for bronze isn’t a assure at Los Angeles in a sport like badminton, the place 70 % of the highest names in each singles, have been nursing niggles, and felled by health. Carolina Marin had recovered, and re-emerged, however nonetheless went out in tears to damage on the point of the ultimate. Tai Tzu Ying simply couldn’t transfer in her ultimate effort. The male Chinese language and Indonesians, within the 23 to 29 age bracket, have been soundly thrashed. So once you earn the prospect to gun for bronze and are at your fittest like Sen was, a set and 8-3 up too, however nonetheless flub the chance because of nerves, your straight-shooting coach isn’t going to mollycoddle.
With badminton and its bustling Prime 15, you simply can’t sit again, inform your self you might be nonetheless younger, match and raring, with time readily available, and venture a hopeful medal 4 years from now. Coaches seethed in Paris, as a result of they stunning a lot know 24×7, one year, 4 years, how excruciatingly robust medalling is. There’s a motive they don’t waste their time penning fairly inane inspirational scribbles on Twitter and as an alternative truthfully parse by way of what went flawed, as an alternative of promising a medal subsequent time. So for Satwik-Chirag and Sen, this was a sucker punch.
Padukone is a legend who slogged with none assist, in occasions when there was none on supply, to win his All England in 1980, earlier than he acquired roundly criticised for chiding Lakshya, a participant whom he had talent-scouted and singled out for maybe the utmost funding made obtainable to anybody who was in Paris, for the final 12 years.
India’s Lakshya Sen in motion on the Port de la Chapelle Area in the course of the Paris Olympics. (AP Picture)
Sen’s coach Vimal Kumar had stood on the court docket for high-intensity multi-feed shuttle periods until age 60. One of many sharpest feeders, the ace coach had plotted gameplans for each Olympic and All England upset Sen has scored.
And Pullela Gopichand acquired India the primary two Olympic podiums, apart from a number of World Championship medals, each with 6 am periods, and analysing on the spot opponents barking out pinpoint directions in competitors crucibles that helped Nehwal, Sindhu, Srikanth, Sai Praneeth and Prannoy nail down wins. Even double Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen was introduced down on the 2023 Worlds for Prannoy’s medal with Gopichand plotting. You don’t want to present him credit score, however gamers will acknowledge his well timed interventions that nick some extent in sticky 17-17 sort of conditions. And nail down career-defining medals. He missed his personal, therefore is aware of how a lot it hurts when you’ll be able to’t win the rostrum knockouts. Badminton medals have at all times wanted robust tactical backroom work.
These coaches know what they’re doing, and are additionally conscious of the essential distinction between a medal and a non-medal. They dwell the frustration with the participant, in contrast to followers with their hot-takes, earlier than shifting onto the following subject to mutter.
The identical is true for gamers. Olympic medals matter to athletes. They’re the stamps of recognition tattooed onto your identification, which no person can take away from you. No quantity of sentimental Twitter poetry of loyal legions can exchange that medal on the mantelpiece.
This explains Neeraj Chopra’s disappointment at lacking the gold and Padukone’s out-burst after Sen’s loss within the bronze-medal play off. Sen would possibly see a lifetime of alternatives forward of him in his younger life, Padukone is aware of how destiny may be fickle. The medal issues.