"Things changed after we won the Commonwealth Games" - Interview with Ashwini Ponnappa

Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta at 2012 London Olympics

How was the experience different in the London Olympics?

It was different because there were expectations from us. Until then, India had never qualified in the doubles category, and it was an opportunity for us to qualify in all 3 doubles category.

The most exciting thing was getting to know that we had qualified but, unfortunately, Sanave and Rupesh missed out on qualifying for Men’s doubles.

It’d have been really great had we qualified in all 3 categories because we did put in a lot of hard work.

Apart from that, we (Jwala and I) really focused on the job at hand, and we knew that we could do it. What happened there was quite unfortunate. But we have to move on. Sometimes, such things happen.

When did playing for the country become a dream?

Well, once I started getting older, once I got into the under-16 category and then the under-19 category, I was gunning to make it to the junior’s squad and represent India.

Until I was selected in the under-19 category, I used to play in both, in doubles as well as in singles. But once I got selected in the national camp as a doubles player, it was really difficult to cope up with both [categories].

After putting in a lot of hard work, I got to represent India in the Junior World Championships. My partner, Nitya [Krishinda Maheswari] and I had won a lot of national tournaments.

When we went there, I believed we could do really well and I used to think that Indians are the best. I was new to the international circuit and didn’t know who all were good. I just basically thought that Indians were the best. And this exposure made me learn a lot of things.

I realized that there are other countries who are playing, who are working really hard, who are doing really well and that is when I actually started dreaming big and started putting in a lot more hard work in order to do well.

“I just basically thought that Indians were the best” – Ashwini Ponnappa

As a kid, did you ever miss practice when, say, your friends would go out for some kind of entertainment or when your cousins would come over to your place or some such thing?

When I was a kid, and before the dream to represent India cropped in, I used to stay busy with the state championships and the nationals, and in order to win the All India Tournament, I had to practice and train and that became the core part of my life; it still is.

I was quite adamant about my training, and I loved it because the place where I was training was Prakash Sir’s Academy and we had a huge group of girls with whom I was training there.

The environment there was very good as all the kids who were training there were good. When you see your peers working hard, it makes you also work hard, makes you want to do well.

It was nice, it was a competitive and amazing feeling when you are working hard and you are enjoying yourself and you know that if you want to do really well in the state and national championships, you better train for it and not regret later of missing out on it.

I’ve been playing badminton since I was 8 years old and I’ve been playing the All India tournament since I was 12, and once you’re in the All India tournament, you realize that everyone’s working really hard to do well, everyone’s managing their studies along with their games and everyone’s travelling. I realized that in order to do well, you’ve got to work really hard.

Apart from that it was fun too. When I won the junior’s under-16 national championship with Nitya, the top eight of us were from Prakash Sir’s academy.