All change for India’s badminton star P.V. Sindhu in push for Olympic gold

LONDON – A new coach, new mentor and a new home – India’s P.V. Sindhu has overhauled her life in an all-out bid to land an Olympic badminton gold in Paris, after having to settle for silver and bronze in the previous two Games.

She is now in Bengaluru, India, far from Hyderabad, where she trained through most of her career, the highlights of which include bagging the singles silver in Rio 2016, bronze in Tokyo and being crowned world champion in 2019.

The move in October was deemed essential for Sindhu, who wanted to be closer to her new mentor, Prakash Padukone, the Indian badminton great and father of Bollywood superstar Deepika Padukone.

That was not the only change she has made as she gears up to be “smarter” for the 2024 Olympics in France, having recently replaced several members of her team, from her personal fitness trainer to her physiotherapist.

This week, Indonesia’s Agus Dwi Santoso started coaching Sindhu, who parted company with Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, whom she initially said in July she would work with after splitting up with long-time coach Park Tae-sang earlier in 2023.

“I’d been training with Hafiz and then I wanted some change – I thought it was not suiting my game – and that’s when I asked Agus,” Sindhu told Reuters in an interview.

“It’s a new year, a new team. Every aspect I touch on is going to be completely different. Paris is something that’s an ultimate game for us. I think we need to be 100 per cent in every aspect, physically, in skill and in strategy.

“It’s always good to have some change,” added the 28-year-old, who decided she had to shake up her team and “go forward” with Agus, whom she has known for years.

“He’s really good for me because every coach has a different mindset,” she said.

“It’s super tough; you’re fatigued, you’re tired but they (help you) get back that strength and they make sure your muscles are strong enough to be back on court the next day.”

Sindhu, who has previously raised awareness about the stigma surrounding prioritising mental health in sports, said she also has a “mental trainer”.

“Some of it is meditation but, at the same time, it’s important that you know what’s going on in your head while playing, there’s a lot of pressure or responsibility, a lot of expectation,” she said.

The Indian star felt that pressure can be a key factor in a game as intense as hers.

She said that she went into the Rio 2016 Games as an underdog and had no pressure before smashing her way to a silver medal after upsetting Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-finals.

Spain’s Carolina Marin beat her to the gold, however, closing out a 19-21, 21-12, 21-15 victory.

But in Tokyo in 2021, Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu-ying beat her before losing to China’s Chen Yufei in the final. “Tokyo was much harder than Rio because I lost in the semi-finals and there were expectations,” she explained.

Nonetheless, Sindhu is the only Indian to become badminton world champion and only the second individual athlete from India to win two consecutive medals at the Games.

“If I want to achieve something – and my aim is to achieve the Olympic gold – then I would do anything for it,” she said. “It means everything to me.” REUTERS