Badminton India has never had it so good

It is fair to say that the sport of Badminton in India has never had it so good, but let's take a look at how we got here...

Prakash Padukone: The first superstar of Indian Badminton 

Prakash Padukone was ranked World No. 1 in 1980, the same year he became the first Indian to win the All-England Open Badminton Championships. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982 by the Government of India. He is one of the co-founders of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation dedicated to the promotion of Olympic sports in India.

Badminton Players: 1980s - 2000

During his career, Vimal Kumar won the French Open in 1983 and 1984 and the Welsh International Open in 1988 and 1991. Vimal also represented India at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, and was ranked within the top 20 in the world. He was the national chief coach of the Indian badminton squad for several years, but quit the post in 2006 to concentrate on coaching youngsters at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy.

Pullela Gopichand won the All-England Open Championship in 2001 and after his retirement, he set up a new institution dedicated to badminton training. The Pullela Gopichand Academy provides talented Badminton juniors with the opportunity to improve their skills at his Academy in Hyderabad.

It is worth noting that Prakash Padukone (1980) and Pullela Gopichand (2001) are the only two Indians to have won the All England Open Championship.

Badminton Players: 2000s – Current

Saina Nehwal became the first Indian Olympic medalist at the 2012 London Olympics as she won bronze. In April 2015, she became the first Indian female player to be ranked World No. 1.

PV Sindhu won medals in two consecutive Olympics - the 2016 Rio Olympics (silver medal) and 2020 Tokyo Olympics (bronze medal).

Over the years, Indian Badminton players have made their mark in Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championship tournaments as well. The women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa became the first to win a medal when they secured bronze in 2011.

Sindhu won consecutive bronze medals in 2013 and then again in 2014, becoming the first Indian Badminton player to do so. Nehwal won India's first-ever silver at the 2015 Championships, and then a bronze in 2017. Sindhu then won silver in consecutive editions in 2017 and 2018, before going on to win the gold at the 2019 BWF World Championships, becoming the first Indian to achieve this. At the same event, B. Sai Praneeth medalled in the men's singles, clinching the bronze. As a result, for the first time, India won medals in two different disciplines in the same BWF World Championships.

In 2021, Lakshya Sen won the bronze medal in the men's singles while Srikanth Kidambi won the silver. This was the first time that India had two medalists in the same tournament in the men's singles. This also means that since 2011, the Indian squad has never returned without a medal from a World Championship.

Furthermore, PV Sindhu, Srikanth Kidambi, and the doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are ranked among the Top 10 in the current BWF world rankings.

The future of Badminton in India 

The future of Badminton in India is very bright, with new talents like Sen, Ashmita Chaliha, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Mugdha Agrey and Gayatri Gopichand all being potential superstars. This is partly due to the infrastructure that previous badminton legends have set up, as well as the prestigue these legends have given to the sport in India.