PV Sindhu On Olympic Medal: Tokyo Was Hard-Earned But Paris 'Will Be More Challenging'

"It was a hard-earned medal", she nevertheless feels, but believes Paris 2024 will be even more challenging. "I would say, this Olympics is going to be a different experience because the 2016 and 2020 Olympics were very different. Paris will be more challenging but at the same time, I have much more experience and I will have to be much smarter this time," the ace Indian shuttler told PTI in an interaction.

Sindhu is making a much-awaited comeback with the Badminton Asia Team championships in Malaysia from February 13 to 18, after enduring an extended injury-induced break. She suffered stress fracture on her left ankle during the successful Birmingham Commonwealth Games campaign and later sustained another injury on her left knee during the French Open in October 2023, forcing her out for three months.

In between, her form has been indifferent and questions have been raised over her chances at the Paris Olympics. "In the women's circuit, players in the top 10-15 are tough. It is important to be focused and have a strategy so that you can switch to plan B if plan A doesn't work. It is important to stay calm as sometimes you can go blank. It is important to have a strong mindset," the country's top-ranked women's singles player said.

After a bunch of disappointing results, Sindhu parted ways with Korean coach Park Tae-sang early last year. She trained with Sports Authority of India’s Vidhi Chaudhary and later Malaysia's former All-England champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim in July, but success continued to elude her.

Post that, former All England Champion Prakash Padukone reached out to her and soon, Sindhu shifted her base to Bangalore. She is now training under Indonesia's Agus Santoso at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, which runs out of the Padukone–Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence.

ALSO READ: Sindhu In Forbes 2023 Highest Paid Female Athletes List

"I have a new trainer, physio, nutritionist, coach, and mentor, so everything is very new, and I am happy how they have been supporting me and are helping me from where I am and where I should be in the next couple of months," said Sindhu.

"I am very fortunate to work with Prakash sir because he is such a legend and him being a mentor helps. His training methods and ideas are helping me. As for Agus, I knew him for a long time when he was training our men's players.

"We will have to see how I do, it has been just a month. So things will be good moving forward. I am back to my full fitness and I am looking forward to Asia team championships," she added.

Talking about her strategy against the top players, Sindhu, the current world number 11, revealed: "We have been talking and discussing against all the top 10-15 players in the women's circuit. I think right now Aya Ohori, An Se Young, (Akane) Yamaguchi, and Carolina (Marin) are doing well.

"So it is not just one or two players, we need to know how every player is playing and we have been discussing them but it is important to focus on our own skills and technical aspects and also physical aspect."

(With PTI inputs)