A spate of injuries and indifferent form has crippled Sindhu’s rhythm in the lead-up to her third Games, eight years after she bagged a coveted silver to become only the second Indian shuttler after Saina Nehwal to clinch an Olympic medal.
A bronze in Tokyo 2021 elevated her into a select group of Indian individual multiple medalists. A podium finish in Paris will propel her into uncharted territory – potentially the first Indian with three individual medals.
A title has eluded her since her gold medal triumph at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Seeded 10th in the women’s singles in Paris, Sindhu’s group-stage draw offers her an early cushion before bigger challenges emerge on a potentially stifling streak.
PV Sindhu is chasing her third Olympic medal. She had won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics after going down to Carolina Marin in a three-set-long thriller. At the Tokyo Olympics, she went down in the semis to Tai Tzu-Ying and then defeated He Bingjiao in the bronze medal match.
The world rank No. 13 didn't have enough time to train in Paris and therefore went to Sportcampus Saar in Saarbrucken, Germany where the altitude, climate and conditions are identical to Paris.
To simulate the conditions in Paris, the ace shuttler created a hypoxic chamber (low oxygen) in her room and slept for a few days. Notably, hypoxic chambers help an athlete to sustain and perform at higher altitudes.