Happy Birthday P.V Sindhu: Lesser known facts about India's first female badminton superstar

Sindhu’s parents PV Ramana and P Vijaya played volleyball at national level. In fact, Ramana was even honoured with the prestigious Arjuna Award for his contribution and achievements.

India badminton legend Pullela Gopichand has been her idol. After falling in love with the sport at a young age, Sindhu first began training under Mehboob Ali in Secundarabad before joining Gopichand’s academy.

Sindhu broke into the top-20 singles rankings at the age of just 17 years in 2012 after stunning London Olympics bold medallist China’s Li Xuerui.

In 2013, she became the first Indian female shuttler to win a medal at the World Championships, clinching bronze and followed that up with another bronze at the next edition. She then clinched two successive silver medals from the 2017 and 2018 world championships.

At the Rio Olympics 2016, Sindhu entered the final of the women’s singles where she finished runners-up after a close contest with Spain’s Carolina Marin. She created history by becoming the first from her country to win an individual Olympic silver.

She has also won silver and gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in women’s singles and a gold in mixed team event. She was the bronze medallist at the 2014 Asian Championships as well.

Sindhu was bestowed with Arjuna Award in 2013, Padma Shri in 2015, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2016 and Padma Shri in 2020.

In March 2020, Sindhu was named as the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year.

Sindhu was really dedicated to her training as she also used to cover a one-side distance of 30 km every day from Marredpally to Gawchibowli twice in the day making for 120kms of travel and all that getting up at 3am and reaching the academy at 4am.