Recently JD Walsh ( who has been gracious to join our community) caught up with Badminton star Pullela Gopichand in Hyderabad ! JD has been kind enough to share a video of the interview with us. Before we begin with the interview, this is a short introduction for our Badminton hero:
Pullela Gopichand is an Indian Badminton legend.
He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001 defeating Chen Hong of China in the finals by 15-12,15-6. He became the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone, who won it in 1980. He was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for the year 2000-2001. In the year 2002, he refused to endorse a soft drink major as it meant that he would be encouraging people to consume a product which he himself thought was unsafe. In 2005, he was awarded the Padma Shri.
Now, he runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderbad. He is now a greatly renowned coach who is the main force behind the emergence of new star in Indian Badminton Saina Nehwal.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
JD: Hi Gopi, Tell me a bit about your academy?
Gopichand – Hi guys, well we started this about a year and a half ago in Hyderabad and it was with the intention that we have this world class facility in our city so that all our players don’t have to leave and go abroad. They could train here in one place. We have had amazing results over the last few years and hopeful with the Academy doing well, i think more kids will get inspired. We have players like Saina, Kashyap, Guru and a lot of youngsters who have been doing well in the international events. I hope there are more kids coming from our country and doing well internationally.
JD – Can you tell us a little bit about some of the championships which have been played here in the past?
Gopichand – We have been very fortunate because we have been able to hold in 2004 which was then this facility was just starting the Asian Championships which we conducted here. Post that we have had Yonex Sunrise India Open which was like a Grand Prix tournament. Last year we had the biggest tournament in the World , the World Championships. So pretty big names have come over here.
JD - That is awesome! What do you love about Badminton so much?
Gopichand – Well, It is a sport which has given me everything which I have today. And also the fact that as a a country, i believe, we can be good at Badminton. Most Indians have a physique which is suited for Badminton and gives us an opportunity to do well. Badminton is a great sport and also for a country like India we have a lot of scope and a lot of people can play this sport. It is indoor and just two people can play it and now we have the tradition of having good badminton players from India
JD: That’s really exciting and i think Indian sport has just taken off. It’s a lot of fun to watch some of these sports we do not play in America and learn about those sports. It was really exciting to watch a match at St. Stephens College in New Delhi. The last question, i am going to ask you is about world peace and sports. How do you feel is sports a good vehicle for World Peace?
Gopichand – I think as a nation India has always been peace loving but definitely not a sporting nation! But over the years, i am getting convinced that Sport can be a real vehicle to join communities and bind people together because you have to respect come from the fact that you are so competitive within a set of rules. Sport is a legal way of getting your aggression out. Sports allows people and communities to get together. People respect others with different views. That’s very important for world peace. Attending conferences and signing documents is not as effective as sports as sports is what brings our spirit out. That’s what sport means to me and that’s what sport can do for one’s spirit.
JD- That is great! Thank you so much for your time and we hope more world champions can come from you academy in the future. We look forward to big things from Gopichand and all the Olympian and World Champion Badminton players coming out of here!
All of you Keedas who are more interested in Gopichand’s Badminton School can log on to http://www.pgba.in/index.html . Enjoy and pour in with your support to Gopichand guys and gals. SportsKeeda thanks JD Walsh and Gopichand :)
Edited by Anshu Prasad
