A new coach, new mentor and a new home – India’s PV 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’s now in Bengaluru, India, far from Hyderabad, where she trained through most of her career, the highlights of which include bagging the women’s singles silver in Rio 2016, bronze in Tokyo and being crowned world champion in 2019.
But 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’s not the only change Sindhu has made as she gears up to be “smarter” for the Paris 2024 Olympics, 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 first said she would work with in July after splitting with long-time coach Park Tae-Sang earlier in the year.
“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,” Sindhu said. “Paris is something that’s an ultimate game for us. I think we need to be 100% in every aspect, physically, in skill and in strategy.
“It’s always good to have some change,” said 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. 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.
Sindhu said 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 semis. Spain’s Carolina Marin beat Sindhu to the gold, however, closing out a 19-21 21-12 21-15 victory.
“Tokyo was much harder than Rio because I lost in the semi-finals and there were expectations.”
In Tokyo, then-world number one women’s singles shuttler Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-Ying beat Sindhu and took the silver medal.
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 Olympic Games.
“If I want to achieve something – and my aim is to achieve the Olympic gold – then I would do anything for it,” Sindhu said. “It means everything to me.”
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