Happy that I was not good in studies: Pullela Gopichand

With two medals in two Olympics for his proteges, Pullela Gopichand knows how champions are made. But his has not been a rosy road. He opens up on his academy, medals & more.

When P V SINDHU joined and the first medal
I started the academy in 2004 with 25 young kids. Sindhu was one of my youngest kid at about eight years and P Kashyap was the oldest at 15. When I started coaching I had this dream that India would win an Olympic medal someday. I didn’t know that we could so soon in 2012 win our first medal. I think maybe I should retire now because my goals were all finished and done with

Happy that he was not good in studies
My brother and I both played sports. He was fantastic in sports and now I feel that I was lucky I wasn’t good in studies. He was a state champion. He wrote his IIT exam and passed. He went to IIT and stopped playing. I wrote the engineering exam and failed and I continued in sports and this is where I stand now. I think you have to be focussed and even lucky sometimes.

His big wait for a sponsorship
I remember having gone to a certain PSU few years back. I was made to wait for three continuous days outside the room when they promised me support for badminton but after waiting from 9 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening after three days a certain officer at a high position came up to me and said that badminton doesn’t have the eyeballs to be a world sport.

Enough is enough
That was the last day I had gone ahead and asked anybody for sponsorship. The same night I went back home and thanks to my parents and wife, we mortgaged our house and that is how the academy came up

Good ministry, bad ministry
We have people in the ministry who have been ridiculous in their way of treating us but we also have some great souls who have supported us. I hadn’t applied for the Rashtriya Khel Protsahana Puraskar and the Padma Bhushan but few supportive officials felt that I should still be given the award. So it’s those kind of officials and people who move the sport forward.

Gopi the believer
God has been very kind. In my lifetime, whenever I have had problems he has sent somebody for help.