Born on 6 November 1973 in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India, Pulella Gopichand was a sports lover ever since he started making sense of this world. In his initial years, he did not show much of interest towards a specific sport but was drawn towards all of them be it football, cricket, or badminton, just anything and everything.
However, at 11, his brother suggested he take his badminton seriously and Gopi, as he is affectionately known as, never looked back from then. In contemporary India, Gopichand is a massive name in the Indian sporting circuit and is best known not only for leaving a rich legacy as a player but what he is doing to nurture young athletes in the country.
Trained under Prakash Padukone
As a youngster, Pulella Gopichand trained under famous badminton star turned coach Prakash Padukone. Prakash is the father of Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone. It was Prakash who taught Gopi the basics of professional badminton and then fine-tuned his skills. In 1996, Gopichand went on to win the first national championship title.
Success was not an accident for Gopichand as his performances spoke for him. He went on to win the National Championships title five times in a row.
Injury-prone career
One of the characteristic qualities of Gopichand was his never say die attitude. During a SAARC Badminton tournament in 1996, Gopichand injured his knee but did not withdraw from the tournament instead continued playing with plaster around his wound. His career was an injury-prone one but he somehow managed to come back each time and got his name etched in golden letters in the history of Indian sports and badminton.
Commonwealth Games and All England Open Badminton Championship
In the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Gopichand won a silver medal from the men’s team. In the men’s singles encounter in the same year, Gopi went on to win a bronze medal. In 2001, Gopichand won the All England Open Badminton Championship and changed history forever. He became only the second Indian to win the tournament after Prakash Padukone.
When he mortgaged his home to build a world-class badminton academy
After announcing his retirement as a player, Pulella Gopichand started a badminton academy in Hyderabad. However, to ensure world-class facilities to the young players, he had to struggle a lot.
In a DD exclusive interview he revealed that although the government had supported him to provide the land, no organisation or individual came forward to help him install world-class facilities at this place. It was then that Gopichand decided to mortgage his home to ensure that young athletes get nothing but the best training required to be successful at the highest level of the sport.
Superhit coach
Not only as a player but Pulella as a coach has given India two Olympic medal winners. It is not merely a coincidence that India’s best badminton stars in the recent times, be it PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal or K Srikanth, have all trained at Gopichand’s academy situated in Hyderabad.
While Sindhu bagged a silver medal at the Olympics, Saina has an Olympic bronze to her name.
Only Indian to receive the top honour both as a player and coach
Pulella Gopichand is the only Indian to have won the top government honour both as a player and a coach. In 2001, Gopi was honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award- the highest sporting honour. Later in 2009, he was given the Dronocharya Award for his remarkable contributions in coaching.
In addition, he is also the recipient of the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan Awards which he won in 2005 and 2014 respectively.
Pulella Gopichand turns 46 years today. Happy Birthday, Gopi!