Why Pullela Gopichand is not coaching PV Sindhu at the 2021 Olympics

Pullela Gopichand has been a very important part of PV Sindhu's career. However, the legendary coach was not on the sidelines celebrating Sindhu's sensational performance at the Olympics. For the first time since he took up coaching, Gopichand will not be a part of the Indian contingent participating at the Summer Games.

#Rio2016 PV Sindhu Can Have Her Phone and Ice Cream Now, Says Pullela Gopichandhttps://t.co/LBuvjPjhRy pic.twitter.com/O30dmtOOfw

— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 20, 2016

Under his guidance, India has won silver and bronze in badminton at the Olympics. Despite all that success, PV Sindhu is currently being coached by South Korea's Park Tae Sang. The Korean became Sindhu's coach back in 2020.

So why is Gopichand not coaching Sindhu?

PV Sindhu decided to train at Gabchibowli Stadium

PV Sindhu had been training at the Pullela Gopichand academy since the start of her career. She has had immense success training under Gopichand, who is also the national coach for badminton.

Top shuttlers in the country train under Gopichand, which means that he has to divide his attention amongst many athletes. In 2019, he decided to send some of the players to train under Kim Ji Hyun, who joined the Indian badminton coaching team that year.

The move paid off for Sindhu as she went onto do what no other Indian has done - win the BWF World Championships in 2019. However, Hyun resigned as a coach from the Indian badminton team in 2020.

It was then that Sindhu began training under Park Tae Sang. All her training sessions were still conducted at the Pullela Gopichand Academy itself. However, according to reports, rumors of a possible rift between Gopichand and Sindhu had surfaced when Sindhu flew to London for three months.

Further reports emerged that Sindhu had quit the national camp at the Academy and flown to England because of the aforementioned rift. She later cleared the air about the whole situation during an interview with the Times of India and said that she had gone to England for her recovery and nutrition assistance in October.

On her return, she decided to move to the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium for further training. This led to a lot of talk on the outside about a possible fall-out between Gopichand and Sindhu. Sindhu's interview (with the Times of India) cleared the air once and for all.

When asked about a possible rift with Gopichand, Sindhu told TOI:

"The Gachibowli indoor arena size is of international standards. It's similar to that of the badminton venue at the Tokyo Olympics and what we generally experience during international tournaments. It's important to understand the familiarity of the venue and stimulate such conditions at home."

She went on to add cite further legitimate technical reasons behind her decision to shift her base. Sindhu said:

"Also, the AC blowers are a major factor for drift inside the playing venue. Getting used to the drift because of the effect of the blowers on the shuttlecock will help us at the Olympics. Most of the academies in Hyderabad don't have the blowers, so we miss understanding the drift. Here, at the Gachibowli indoor arena, you can master the drift factor."

Top professionals such as Sindhu and Gopichand focus on winning for the country and nothing else

Sindhu's fair and logical assessment behind her decision (to shift base) ended rumors of any rift between the sensational Gopi-Sindhu duo. The two of them have had tremendous success together and have helped Indian badminton reach new heights on the international stage.

With Sindhu now on the verge of creating Olympic history in badminton for India, Gopichand will definitely be cheering on for the star shuttler. More than anything, both of them are (were in the case of Pullela Gopichand) national level athletes. Hence they understand the importance of being both pragmatic about their approach to being the best and putting the cause of the country before any individual.

PV Sindhu claims it! 💥Storms into the semifinal of #Tokyo2020 after a win over Yamaguchi #TeamIndia at #Olympics #Badminton pic.twitter.com/6grFcp8Mz7

— Doordarshan Sports #TokyoOlympics (@ddsportschannel) July 30, 2021

Sindhu training with Park and personal trainer Suchitra has helped her immensely at the Summer Games in Tokyo. She never seems to run out of gas and has been stunning in all her matches so far at the 2021 Olympics. She is yet to drop a set in the competition. She will next take the floor against Tai Tau-Ying in a fascinating semi-final encounter. Gopichand will definitely be hoping her former ward makes India proud again.

Wow!!! Look how much it means to ⁦@Pvsindhu1⁩ and her coach Park Te Sang. Simply brilliant performance. Sindhu on 🔥#OLYMPICS #BADMINTON #IND pic.twitter.com/lYeYBmdcgl

— Viren Rasquinha (@virenrasquinha) July 30, 2021