It was Saina Nehwal who, with her performance in the 2012 London Olympics, won the country’s first-ever medal (a bronze) in the history of the Games, perhaps setting the tone for badminton in India to rise in the new millennium. Like the relay race in athletics, P.V. Sindhu then took over the mantle to add two more Olympic medals to Saina’s tally, a silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics and a bronze in the 2020 Tokyo edition. Suddenly then badminton had become high profile. The two ladies had done their inspirational work, and the result had begun to show. In particular, the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who rose to win two BWF world championship medals aside from the gold in the 2022 Asian Games, among other highs, put the sport right there in the top spot, demanding attention.

But then, as it always happens. Nothing is permanent, and India’s badminton story, too, seemed to reach a stage when an unexpected deceleration seemed to set in. Saina left the scene, and not long after, Sindhu began to lose the earlier grip in her games, and not long after, injury-related issues saw her competitive phase taking breaks. And then it all happened in the Paris Olympics in 2024, where, for the first time in four editions, India went without a medal........

© Mathrubhumi English