Pullela Gopichand

Jayce September 6, 2024 5 0

Character Introduction

Pullela Gopichand (English: Pullela Gopichand, Telugu: పుల్లెల), a member of the Telugu community, is a member of the National Assembly. గొపీచంద్, November 16, 1973-) , often referred to simply as Gopichand, is a retired Indian badminton player and current head coach of the Indian national badminton team. Gopichand rose to fame after winning the men’s singles title at the 2001 All England Open Badminton Championships, becoming the second Indian to win the event after Prakash Padukone, and after retiring from badminton, he founded the Gopichand Badminton Academy, which has trained many well-known badminton players for India. Gopichand was awarded the Arjuna Award for excellence in badminton in 1999 and the Dronacharya Award for excellence in sports coaching in 2009, and was awarded the Lotus Medal of Merit by India** in 2014.

Gopichand was born in a village called Negadra in Prakasan district of Andhra Pradesh. Initially Gopichand was more interested in cricket but was encouraged by his elder brother to take up badminton. Gopichand attended St. Paul’s High School in Hyderabad in high school and later graduated from Andhra Vidyalaya College with a major in public administration. During his college years, Gopichand was the captain of the Indian college mixed team badminton team in 1990 and 1991.

Gopichand started his training with a well known coach in India, Syed Mohammad Arif, and later moved to Prakash Padukone Academy, run by Prakash Padukone, and was also trained by the Sports Authority of India in Bangalore. At the domestic level, Gopichand won his first National Badminton Championship in 1996 and went on to win five consecutive titles in the next five years, as well as two gold medals and a gold medal at the Indian National Games in Imphal in 1998. At the international level, Gopichand has represented India three times in the Thomas Cup, winning the 1996 Badminton Championships organized by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Vijayawada and defending the title in Colombo in 1997. In the men’s singles semifinals of the 1998 Commonwealth Games badminton tournament, Gopichand was eliminated 0-2 (1-15, 11-15) by Wong Choong Han of Malaysia and won the bronze medal. In addition, he had won two open tournaments in Toulouse and Scotland in 1999, as well as the India International.

In March 2001, Gopichand played in the 91st All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England. After reaching the round of 16, Gopichand defeated Sydney Olympic men’s singles gold medalist Ji Xinpeng in straight sets (15-3, 15-9), and then again in the semifinals, defeating Denmark’s Peter Gade in straight sets (17-14, 17-15) to end his opponent’s 30-match winning streak since the Sydney Olympics. Finally, Gopichand defeated China’s Chen Hong 15-2, 15-6 in the final to become the first Indian to win the All England Open since Prakash Padukone 21 years ago.

After winning the All England Open, Gopichand announced his retirement at the end of 2003 due to an injury sustained during training and a decline in performance due to injuries.

After announcing his retirement, Gopichand mortgaged his property to start the Gopichand Badminton Academy in 2008, which was sponsored by Indian entrepreneur Nimagada Prasad for Rs. 50 million on the condition that he would “produce Olympic medalists for India”. To this day, the Gopichand Academy has produced many outstanding badminton players for India such as Saina Neville, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, Kashyap Parupalli, Srikanth Kidambi, etc., with Neville winning a bronze medal in women’s singles in badminton at the 2012 Summer Olympics and Sindhu winning a silver medal in the women’s singles event in badminton at the 2016 Summer Olympics Women’s Singles event won a silver medal.