PV Sindhu Wins Bronze At Tokyo Olympics 2020: Lesser Known Facts About India's Best Shuttler

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India's ace shuttler PV Sindhu made the country proud again by winning a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. What is even more commendable that this is PV Sindhu's second Olympic medal for India, the first one being a silver at the finals of the Rio Olympics 2016. The Tokyo Games 2020 win makes PV Sindhu only the second Indian athlete to win two individual medals at the Olympic Games (the first one being wrestler Sushil Kumar)..

Although Sindhu lost in the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 to China's Tai Tzu-Ying, she won the play-off match for the bronzea, defeating China's He Bingjiao. While playing in the Tokyo Olympics 2020, Sindhu broke the record of former badminton World No.1 Saina Nehwal, her compatriot who is the first Indian to play in two quarters and one semifinal at the Olympics.

Here are some lesser-known facts about PV Sindhu:

1. PV Sindhu was born on 5 June 1995 in Hyderabad to parents PV Ramana and P Vijaya.

2. PV Ramana, an employee of the Indian Railways hails from Nirmal, Telangana while P Vijaya is the native of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.

3. Both the parents of PV Sindhu were national-level volleyball players. Her father PV Ramana won a bronze medal in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games. He received the Arjuna Award in 2000.

4. Sindhu received her initial education from Auxilium High School, Hyderabad and St. Ann's College for Women, Hyderabad.

5. Sindhu started playing badminton at the age of eight. At the badminton court of the Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications, Secunderabad, Sindhu learned the basics of badminton from Mehboob Ali.

6. Though her parents were volleyball players, Sindhu chose badminton after she was inspired by Pullela Gopichand post his success in the 2001 All England Open Badminton Champion.

7. Soon, she joined Gopichand's Badminton Academy. While she was already performing well in her career, The Hindu wrote, "The fact that she reports on time at the coaching camps daily, travelling a distance of 56 km from her residence, is perhaps a reflection of her willingness to complete her desire to be a good badminton player with the required hard work and commitment."

8. After joining Gopichand's Academy, Sindhu won many titles including the 5th Servo All India Ranking Championship in the doubles category and the singles title at the Ambuja Cement All India Ranking in the Under-10 category.

9. At the Under-14 years category in 51st National State Games, India, Sindhu bagged a gold medal.

10. On 7 July 2012, she defeated Japanese Player Nozomi Okuhara to win the Asian Junior Championships. In 2013, she won the Malaysian Title by beating Singaporean player Gu-Juan. Later she participated in the 2013 World Championships where she seeded 10th in a draw.

11. In 2014, Sindhu reached the finals of the 2014 India Open Grand Prix Gold but lost to Saina Nehwal. Sindhu also played in the 2014 Commonwealth Games but lost to Michelle Li of Canada.

12. In the 2015 World Championships, she defeated Line Højmark Kjærsfeldt of Denmark. She stunned the 3rd seeded Li Xuerui in round 16 and reached the quarterfinals of the World Championships.

13. At the Rio Olympics 2016 in the women's singles event, Sindhu seeded 9th in the Draw in Group M. She later went on to win the silver medal at the Games, hence becoming the first Indian female to bag an Olympic silver medal.

14. In 2017, Sindhu won the Syed Modi International by defeating Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia. In the 2017 World Championships, she was seeded 4th.

15. In 2021, she was among the two ambassadors (belonging to badminton) in the International Olympic Committee's campaign 'Believe in Sport'.

Congratulations to PV Sindhu!