P. Gopichand: Giving flight to Indian badminton

It started with 60 trainees in 2008 and has seen a five-fold increase in its intake since then to more than 250 now with countless others on the waiting list. It is one of Badminton Asia Confederation’s very few Asia Training Centres. The others are in China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

At the academy, Gopichand helps to coach and motivate the players, as well as manage their individual strengths and weaknesses. A key part of his work is to counsel the parents regarding their wards’ progress, as more and more people see badminton as a sport that they are willing to allow their children to try. And they like to constantly be appraised of the situation involving their son or daughter.

“In the 1980s and 1990s the perception and awareness of the game was not much,” Gopichand had said in an interview with Business Standard last year.

During that interview, Gopichand shed light on some of the difficulties that he and his peers faced growing up as a badminton player.