INDIA'S badminton ace PV Sindhu left Tokyo 2020 having carved out a slice of history for her own.
After clinching the bronze in the women’s singles, Sindhu is now the first woman from her country ever to become a double Olympic medallist.
Off the back of her historic silver in Rio 2016, there was an unrelenting buzz around the 26-year-old and what she might achieve in her next Olympic Games in Tokyo.
When she transformed herself from ‘Silver Sindhu’ to world champion in 2019, it was clear that the shuttler was entering altogether a different kind of level in her sport; no longer was she willing to settle for second best in finals.
Although Sindhu was ultimately outclassed by Tai Tzu-Ying of Chinese Taipei en route to the gold medal match such was the Indian’s resilience, and grit, that she was able to brush off her golden disappointment and manifest a winner’s energy to once again come home with a prize.
Sindhu’s tournament, bar her stutter in the semi-final, was nothing short of dominant.
The shuttler cruised through the competition’s early group stage.
Sindhu cruised past the knockout stages without dropping a game until the semis which was a slightly different story.
Her opponent, Tai Tzu-Ying, used all her guile and wit to effectively neutralise the Indian’s greatest weapons in the fight for a place in the gold medal match.
The door to gold had been firmly shut, but the route was open for a shot at bronze.
Speaking to Firstpost she said:
“Constantly I was thinking about the bronze medal match later in the day. Kept thinking ‘What’s going to happen?’ I had a lot of things inside me going: ‘what if you win?’, ‘what if you lose?’, ‘what if you win?’, ‘what if you lose?’
Taming the inner turmoil wreaking havoc on her mind required focus and serenity.
Both assets were something that the Indian fortunately managed to locate in time for her clash with He Bing Jiao, and just as well, the 24-year-old shuttler went into the medal match with a positive head-to-head against Sindhu.
Deploying her strength advantage, and her usual on-court aggressiveness, the Indian proved too good for her opponent..
What is next for the athlete being hailed as one of India’s greatest? Paris 2024.
Sindhu’s own story from Japan will be one narrative of many shared, told and dissected as the Games are digested.
But certain to always set her apart will be the way in which she has answered the medal call not once but twice, and that maybe still, the best is yet to come. - Agencies. August 16, 2021
