Ace shuttler Pusarla Venkata (PV) Sindhu, dreaming to become World No.1, is trying to reach the numero uno spot. Sindhu, who had achieved a career-best ranking of World No 2 few months ago, said when she started playing at the age of eight her first dream was to represent India.
“When I started playing at the age of eight my dream was to play for India and that was the first dream. When I started playing for India that is when I thought someday I have to be (on) top of the world. I am trying to be World No.1…Now my dream is to become World No. 1 and definitely it’s in progress. I would want to see myself there,” media reports quoted the Rio Olympics silver medallist as saying.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal. She is one of the two Indian badminton players to ever win an Olympic medal – other being Saina Nehwal. Born on 5 July 1995, she was also a silver medalist at the 2017 BWF World Championships and, in 2017, became first Indian ever to win Korea Open Super Series.
Sindhu came to international attention when she broke into the top 20 of the BWF World Ranking in September 2012 at the age of 17. In 2013, she became the first ever Indian women’s singles player to win a medal at the Badminton World Championships. In March 2015, she is the recipient of India’s fourth highest civilian honor, the Padma Shri. Her silver medal win in the women’s singles event of the 2016 Summer Olympics made her the first Indian shuttler to reach the final of an Olympics badminton event and the youngest Indian to make a podium finish in an individual event at the Olympics. She is one among the top five shuttlers in women’s singles category.
Participating in an interaction with students and teachers during a promotional event organised at her alma mater Auxilium High School here, Sindhu said her mother has been her inspiration. “She has always been there saying that ‘do your best’ and ‘give your best’ in whatever you do. Be brave and stay strong and all women should do that and believe in ourselves,” Sindhu said on her mother.
Asked on the challenges she faced to attain success, Sindhu said she faced many challenges. “But I don’t feel it’s a burden kind of thing because I wanted to achieve my dream and I just followed that. There was a certain time where I thought what’s going on wrong because at sometimes you might not give your best. Sometimes you might just play brilliantly but when you tend to lose, you think that what’s happening or what’s going on wrong. I think learning from your mistakes and coming back much more stronger is important thing that is what I feel and that’s how I learnt and came up in my life,” Sindhu said.
Sindhu said, “You have to always be grounded, that is most important thing. Even though you win a lot more or be at the top position you always have to be grounded. You have to give respect and also discipline is very much important and those are the values I have learned from this school.”
On her parents, Sindhu said, “My parents support was always there and they motivated me. My parents played a very important role and I am lucky to have parents like them because they were sports-persons.”
“Everybody will face challenges in their lives. If you want to achieve something in your life you have to believe in yourself even though there are ups and downs. You have to go through it and hard work is the key for success. For me I have come so far and I just feel it is starting for me even though I faced so many challenges,” she added.
