Now Reading: Gopi Chand says today’s badminton players have bigger horizons
-
01
Gopi Chand says today’s badminton players have bigger horizons
P. Gopi Chand, the former All England champion turned coach, has told The Hindu that comparing past and present badminton generations is unfair. Speaking ahead of the World championships starting Monday in…
The Story in Brief
P. Gopi Chand, the former All England champion turned coach, has told The Hindu that comparing past and present badminton generations is unfair. Speaking ahead of the World championships starting Monday in New Delhi, he said today's players enter the sport with the ambition to be world champions, whereas his generation only hoped to play well, avoid injuries, and get a job.
India first hosted the World championships in Hyderabad in 2009. Since then, the country has won 15 medals at the tournament, including P.V. Sindhu's gold in 2019. Gopi Chand also spoke about his daughter Gayatri, a double Commonwealth Games medallist, saying he does not want his own achievements to overshadow hers.
The Indian Opinion
The urge to pit generations against each other is lazy journalism. Gopi Chand rightly calls it unfair. Conditions that produced Saina and Sindhu are different from those that gave him an All England title. The real test for Indian badminton is not who was greater but whether the hosting of the Worlds in Delhi can deepen the talent pool beyond the same few states. Watch if state-level coaching centres or private academies produce the next batch of top-20 players.
Source: thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
