A day after Lakshya Sen squandered a brilliant start to lose the men’s singles bronze medal match 21-13, 16-21, 11-21 to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia, thereby bringing down the curtains on a medal-less performance for the Indian badminton contingent, the first instance in the last 12 years, it fuelled a debate among India’s badminton fraternity after coach Prakash Padukone asked players to take more responsibility.

Visibly disappointed after the poor outing, legendary coach Prakash Padukone did not hold back in his analysis, asking players to ‘introspect’ and question themselves whether they had ‘doing enough’ to win an Olympic medal.

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“At least for results in this Olympics and the previous one, you cannot hold the federations and government responsible for the results. They have all done whatever they can. Ultimately the responsibility is on players to go and deliver when it matters the most. The players need to introspect, and not just keep asking for more from the federations. They need to ask themselves whether they are working hard enough, because all of these players have their own physios and all the facilities. I don’t think any other country, including the US, has so many facilities. Maybe, you know, the players are not working hard enough. Maybe, it is not enough to get a medal at the Olympics. So you (players) need to work also,” Padukone said right after Lakshya squandered an early advantage to lose his bronze-medal playoff.

Lakshya’s fourth place finish is the fifth similar heartbreak featuring seven Indians across disciplines, ranging from archery to shooting to badminton. It began with shooter Arjun Babuta in the men’s 10m air rifle event, before the mixed archery team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat experienced that fumbling feeling.

Pistol shooter Manu Bhaker, a two-time Paris medallist aiming for her third, also found herself in a similar position in the 25m final before the mixed skeet team, involving Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan experienced the heartbreak with a close 43-44 finish.

Among all those, the 22-year-old Lakshya seemingly swallowed the hardest pill as he came tantalisingly close to scripting history by becoming the first Indian male shuttler to win an Olympic medal, not once but twice!

It was the second time in 24 hours that Lakshya lost after being in a comfortable position. In the semifinal against eventual gold medallist Viktor Axelsen on Sunday, Lakshya got himself to a handy seven-point lead in the second game after a closely fought 20-22 first game.

However, Axelsen saved his best for the last and came back hard to beat the Indian.

However, Padukone’s comments did not go down too well with doubles star and veteran Ashwini Ponnappa, who earlier had announced that the Paris Games were her career’s last Olympics.

“Disappointing to see this. If a player wins, everyone jumps on the bandwagon to take credit, and if they lose, it’s just the player’s fault?!” Ashwini shared on social media.

“Why aren’t coaches held responsible for lack of preparation and getting the player ready? They are the first ones to take credit for wins; why not take responsibility for their players’ losses as well? At the end of the day, winning takes team effort and losing is also the team’s responsibility. You can’t suddenly push the player under the bus and blame it all on the player.”

Ashwini, partnering Tanisha Crasto, had competed in the women’s doubles competition at Paris 2024. The duo’s campaign ended in the group stages.

Jwala backs Padukone’s call

Ashwini’s one-time doubles partner Jwala Gutta jumped to Padukone’s defence while criticising her 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal winning partner for trying to deflect responsibility away from players.

“Yes, players can also take responsibilities…why not? Players, when they win, get all the riches…do they share it with their coach or staff? If a coach is saying that the players also need to take responsibility after reaching a certain stage in a tournament, the player should be held responsible as well,” Jwala said.

“Also want to know from Ashwini about coaches taking all credit…is she referring to the chief coach? And does she share her income with coaches when she wins???” she further wrote.

Saina-Parupalli also join the debate

The star badminton couple, Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap also reacted to Padukone’s comments saying that while criticism is important, one can’t question the commitment of the athletes.

“There will be a lot of tough questions asked of our Indian Olympic contingent, and rightfully so, once the games are over in a few days’ time,” Saina and Parupalli shared.

“And while it’s our right to ask and criticise, one thing we cannot and should not do is question the commitment of all 117 athletes representing our country. All of them have shed blood, sweat, tears to get to the Olympics,” the couple added.