PV Sindhu Paris Olympics 2024: Indian badminton star PV Sindhu will try her best to create history by winning a medal in the third consecutive Olympic Games. To achieve this goal, he has practiced hard in different ways in the last few months. Sindhu won silver medal in Rio Olympics and bronze medal in Tokyo Olympics. If she succeeds in reaching the podium in the Paris Olympics, then she will become the first Indian player to complete a hat-trick of medals.
29-year-old Sindhu has been out of form for some time now, but she said that spending the last eight months with Prakash Padukone has boosted her confidence and she is ready to win her third consecutive medal. Badminton matches in Paris Olympics will start from July 27.
Sindhu said in the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, ‘Definitely my goal is to win a medal. It doesn’t matter whether it is first, second or third. I have won two medals and I do not want to put pressure on myself by thinking about the third medal.
She said, ‘Whenever I participate in the Olympics, it is a new Olympics for me. Therefore, whenever I go to play in the Olympics, my aim is to win a medal. Hopefully I will complete the hat-trick soon.
Before coming to Paris, Sindhu trained at the Sportcampus Saar in Saarbrucken, Germany where the altitude, weather and conditions are similar to those in the French capital. To adjust to the conditions, she made a hypoxic chamber (low oxygen) in her room and slept there for a few days. Hypoxic chambers help prepare the player’s body for playing at high altitudes.
Sindhu said, ‘I could not go to high altitude places for practice. I didn’t have much time and so I thought it would be better to create that kind of conditions here rather than going somewhere else.
The star Indian player said that she has improved her strokes and is performing better than before in long rallies. Sindhu was asked what difference she felt from practicing with Padukone, she said, ‘Having a lot more confidence in the stroke. Women’s singles now has very long rallies and long duration matches and I have prepared myself for them.
He said, ‘Against each opponent you have to adopt a different style and it is necessary to hit the right stroke at the right time. Prakash sir insisted on this and we worked on it. There has been a lot of improvement. You will see this on the court.
Sindhu will face tough competition from these shuttlers
Sindhu’s first big challenge will come in the round of 16, when she will face China’s He Bingjiao, her opponent in the bronze medal match of the Tokyo Olympics. Bingjiao was easily defeated by Sindhu in that match by 21-13, 21-15. However, Bingjiao had won her previous match against Sindhu in the 2022 Asian Games. Talking about head to head, Bingjiao’s record against Sindhu is 11-9.
If Sindhu reaches the quarter-finals after defeating Bingjiao, then Chinese player Chen Yufei (if there is no major upset) will be in front of her. The Indian superstar has not lost any match to any Chinese shuttler in the Olympics and World Championships, but Yufei is in excellent form. The current Olympic champion had won the Indonesia Open earlier this month, defeating world No. 1 Ann Seung in the final. Sindhu and Eufei have won 6-6 matches against each other so far.
In the semi-finals, Sindhu may face Spanish legend Carolina Marin, who has always been her biggest rival. Sindhu’s record against Marin is not good, in which she is behind 5-12. This same Marin had defeated Sindhu in the final of the 2016 Olympics.