If only you’re a badminton player, then you might be well known about this sport.
Then, you must be aware of who is the first player to win an Olympic medal in Badminton belongs from India. If yes, then fine. But if you’re not aware, then don’t worry. We will let you know the complete details about the first player who won the Olympic medal in badminton.
Table of Contents
First Indian Player to Win Bronze in Badminton at Olympics.
Sania Nehwal
Saina Nehwal is the first badminton player from India who won a bronze medal in badminton singles at London Olympics in 2012.
After the victory of Saina Nehwal, at Olympic changed the prescription of the peoples regarding badminton. And this made badminton more popular and played games all over India.
Four years later After Saina, a new star player P.V Sindhu brought a bar of silver in the Rio Olympics 2016, for the nation.
Personal Information
- Born on: 17 March 1990
- Place: Hisar, Haryana, India
- Weight: 65 kg
- Height: 5 ft 5 in
- Mother: Usha Nehwal
- Father: Harvir Singh Nehwal (Scientist)
- Husband: Parupalli Kashyap
- Handedness: Right
Saina Nehwal is India’s top professional badminton player.
She Was born in Haryana, but when she turned 5 her parents took her to Hyderabad. Before she was born her parents also used to play badminton from Haryana, and reached the state level. Saina’s first badminton academy was Gopichand Badminton Academy, where she learned all the skills. She was also very fond of playing karate, and she even holds a brown belt in Karate.
Sachin Tendulkar the star player of cricket gifted her a BMW when she returned from London Olympics with a Bronze with pride. T.S Sudhir wrote an autobiography on Saina Nehwal which was named ‘Playing to win: My Life On and Off the Court’ in which he had mentioned each and every struggle that she faced while her journey to the London Olympics and so on.
Creating History
Saina became a perfect badminton player at a very young age, she always gave her best in all her junior series competitions. She was recommended for India’s Asian Games Squad 2006. Saina took her training from Pullela Gopichand, who is a former winner of the All England Championship. He trained Saina for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where she became the first Indian Female Badminton Player to qualify for the quarter-finals and created history. But she couldn’t qualify for the finals because she got knocked by an Indonesian player, Maria Kristin Yulianti. After losing in 2008, she began with her training for 2012.
After returning from Beijing, she participated in many competitive matches like Commonwealth Games, BWF Championships, Indonesia Opens, and many more, and even won many of them.
Awards received
Saina Nehwal was awarded ‘Arjuna Award’ in 2009, with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and Padma Shri in 2010, The Most Entertaining Sportsperson of the Year Award was also given to her in 2015, Padma Bhushan Award in 2016, and the CC-IBN Indian of the year in sports award in 2009.
Training Sessions
Saina Nehwal started taking her training sessions from her childhood when she was eight years old. Her first coach, Pullela Gopichand trained her very well from the very start in the Gopichand Badminton Academy. But after a while, she left Gopichand Academy and went to Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, Which is located in Bangalore, where U.Vimal Kumar trained her. Later something changed her mind and she went back to the Gopichand Badminton Academy, from where she began.
Politics
Saina Nehwal is a great fan of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she says he’s an inspiration to her. Due to which she decided to join Bharatiya Janta Party on 29 January 2020.
Conclusion
Above while reading the article you might have noticed a thing that, the First Indian to Win a Bronze in badminton at Olympics is a female. Which gives a bounce to women’s empowerment. If you’re a die-hard badminton fan then you might also know that the second Indian player to win silver is also a female “P.V.Sindhu”. I know that this article is not regarding women’s empowerment but I just want you to know that our country gave us many talented players in every field whether it’s badminton, football, or hockey. All we need to do is support them and encourage them.