Not many know that Pullela Gopichand’s wife Lakshmi, also a shuttler, represented India in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The former national champion now helps her husband run an academy in Hyderabad that has already produced two Olympic medal winners: Saina Nehwal (bronze at London Games, 2012), and the current toast of the nation, PV Sindhu, the Rio silver medallist.
“The idea is to provide today’s generation what we didn’t have,” Lakshmi told Mirror when we mentioned Gopi’s rigorous schedule for his wards. “Sindhu has what I didn’t have back then – my husband as coach,” she said.
Lakshmi said it was unfair to criticise sportspersons for failing to excel at the highest level because India still has a long way to go in terms of infrastructure. “What we are trying to do at the academy is to eliminate the difficulties we faced. Back then, the main
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