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Indian shuttler HS Prannoy has backed his badminton contingent for the Paris Olympics 2024 and went on to say that the team will try its best to give something to the fans to cheer for in the upcoming mega event.
Prannoy is India's finest singles player, having recently advanced to the semi-finals of the BWF World Championships in August. Prannoy's journey to the semi-finals was nothing short of a miracle. He defeated world number one Viktor Axelsen, securing India's bronze medal. Despite losing in the semi-finals to the previous year's finalist, Kunlavut Vitidsarn (world No. 3), Prannoy's performance was commendable. This accomplishment is especially notable given Prannoy's professional trajectory. He was formerly considered a less popular athlete than players like PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikant. But Pronoy has emerged from the shadows to become India's best hope for a medal at the upcoming Paris Olympics. The 31-year-old badminton player expressed his feelings as he is set to participate in his maiden Olympics. "I think it is always exciting when it comes to an Olympics because there are a lot of eyes on players. For me, this is going to be the first Olympics and I am very happy. First of all, to get qualified, I think that is the biggest task, especially when it comes to the qualification period, to be injury-free, to play the whole tournament here," Prannoy told ANI. The shuttler further lauded the young singles player, Lakshya Sen. He said that Sen has been playing really well for the last few months. "I think it is a very taxing period out there for players with a lot of tournaments out there, but to finally qualify for the Olympics gives a lot of relief, I would say, looking at the fact that we have had two men singles players, it gives a lot of motivation. Lakshya has also been playing really well for the last few months and having somebody like him with me will always give me extra motivation," India's top-ranked men's singles player added. Prannoy said that the team has had good results in the past, whether it was in the Commonwealth Games or the World Championships. "If you look at the last 4-5 years, I would say, we have done exceptionally well in the bigger events. Be it at the Commonwealth Games or World Championships, we all had good results in the past. So I think, getting into the Olympics, say from PV Sindhu's perspective or Satwik-Chirag's perspective, everybody has their chances," the shuttler said. India's top-ranked men's singles player said that the team needs to be mentally and physically fit for six to ten days during the tournament. "Tanisha also qualified and looking from a medal perspective, everybody has their chance. You just have to be extremely well mentally and physically for six days or probably 10 days of the tournament. Whoever is going to do that, I think, will be standing on the podium. So I think, we have got a very good team this year, which is going to the Olympics," the badminton player added. In the end, Prannoy spoke about their brilliant performance in the recently concluded Asian Games in China. He said that their team was expecting only one medal but we came back with three medals. "We always hope to do that in the Asian Games. I think we were all expecting to get one medal but we eventually came back with three medals in the Asian Games just from badminton. So, I think that kind of stays: if you are positive enough to look into the result, then wonders happen. So, we are hoping for a kind of turnaround in the Olympics and we can hopefully give something for the entire nation to cheer for," the 31-year-old concluded. (ANI)
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