A former badminton player, ace badminton coach and the one who has modeled the sport to it's present shape, the man behind handing over the due recognition to Badminton, in a country governed by Cricket, meet Pullela Gopichand. Pullela Gopichand is the chief coach of the Indian National Badminton team and runs the esteemed Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad. Pullela wasn't a very known name until his disciples, Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu brought home pride by winning the Bronze and Silver Medals in 2012 and 2016 Olympics respectively.

Pullela Gopichand was born on Nov 16, 1973 at Nagandla, Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. Sports ran in his nerves since adolescence, and he started playing badminton at the age of 11. Pullela captained the Indian combined universities badminton team in 1990 and 1991. He was coached by veterans like S.M. Arif and later by Prakash Padukone and Ganguly Prasad, and went on to win his first national badminton title in 1996, and from there, there was no looking back. Gopichand continued to win the national title until the year 2000, five times in a row, along with several other famed national and international titles. Some of his notable accomplishments include a Silver in the team event and a bronze in men's singles at the 1998 Commonwealth games, he emerged as the winner in the Toulouse open championship in France and the Scottish open championship in Scotland in 1999, before winning the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championship at Birmingham in 2001, the second Indian to earn the laurel after the legend, Prakash Padukone.

On personal front, Badminton runs in Pullela Gopichand's family, he is married to P.V.V. Lakshmi, two-time national women’s singles champion. He has two kids, and his daughter is also an aspiring badminton player, and has garnered a couple of under-17 national titles to her name.

Pullela laid the foundation stone of the Pullela Gopichand Academy in the year 2008, after retiring from his playing career. He mortgaged his own house to actualize his dream of setting up this world-class training academy. The academy and the guru sculpted a number of champions, including Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap, Srikanth Kidambi, Arundhati Pantawane, Gurusai Datt and Arun Vishnu.

Gopichand has been bestowed with a number of awards and accolades for his contribution towards the sport, including the Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Shri, Dronacharya award and the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award in 2014.

Like all achievers Pullela Gopichand too, has strived hard to get where he is today, what goes into clinching the big awards and creating sports superstars is a Vision, lot of dedication, devotion and discipline.

Pullela Gopichand set an example of unbroken determination, when in mid-90's, a series of knee injuries left him in constant pain and a small error could ruin his career. But he did not succumb to his wounds, rather he lift himself up, took up yoga, regained his strength and grew to become stronger than ever.

Gopichand is known to be a no-nonsense coach, his trainees undergo vigorous training sessions and have to follow strict exercise and diet routines. The coach and his students start their day at 4 a.m. and practice continues until late evenings. Pullela goes into minute details while devising strategies for his players and is obsessed with his trainees' daily exercise schedule and food intake. His trainees get a list of things that they are supposed to eat. He even checked Saina Nehwal's refrigerator to ensure she isn't eating anything that's not on the list. P.V. Sindhu was forbidden to go near Chocolates and Hyderabadi Biryani, her favourites, among a number of other things, while treading on the path leading to the 2016 Rio Olympics win. Most of Pullela's trainees are not allowed to use cellphones, and Sindhu was no exception, she got her mobile phone back from the coach only after she won the Olympics Silver.

Testimonials

“He sets new benchmarks as a coach that are difficult for others to follow.” - V.V.S. Laxman, cricketer and also happens to be Gopichand's schoolmate.

“I think he is the man behind all the success of badminton today here what we have. If he wouldn’t have become a coach after he quit his playing career, all this wouldn’t have been possible. So whatever we have today and whatever we will have in the next generations, it will be all because of him” - Kidambi Srikanth, winner of the recent Indonesian Open and Australian Open series

A diamond needs to be cut and polished to bring out its lustre. And Pullela Gopichand is doing the job very well, he is undoubtedly the Dronacharya of Indian badminton, the man behind creating a race of exceptional badminton gems.