Why was Prakash Padukone justified in his blunt assessment of Lakshya Sen’s medal miss? | Badminton News

There are many ways to interpret Prakash Padukone’s blunt assessment of the performance of Indian athletes, though his focus was on badminton returning with no medals. Mercifully, the one man who this was meant for, later stated he was “determined to reflect on what went wrong and where I need to improve.” Lakshya Sen knew the bronze was there for the taking, and he couldn’t nail it down. He is self-aware and not particularly foolish to not know it was an opportunity badly missed.Shuttlers – the very old and the young elite alike – really aren’t too fond of theatrics and public meltdowns, be it when they split with coaches or when coaches honestly lay out the facts, post failures. You will not get a “you are still a winner” platitude from Padukone, Vimal Kumar or Pullela Gopichand, because their time and mindspace is heavily and obsessively invested in getting the shuttlers to win internationally, planning, plotting and scything through severely difficult playing fields. They neither mince words, nor sugarcoat what needs to be done to dust up from defeats and start the grind again. It’s why India had three medals from three Olympics and 10 straight World Championship medals every single edition since 2011.
Missing a medal in the 2024 Olympics, despite receiving the highest financial and coaching support, will sting at least till the next Olympic medal is secured. Satwik-Chirag and Lakshya Sen are bona-fide successes on the international circuit and will carry forward their ambitions, and the likes of Priyanshu Rajawat and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand will need to step up, and deliver in the next Olympic cycle.
Paris: India’s Lakshya Sen (blue) during the Men’s Singles Semifinal badminton match against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary)
But Padukone’s disappointment and urgency in hauling up Sen, soon after his bronze playoff loss, needs to be understood in the context of a larger reality. The men’s singles circuit is terribly competitive and will remain extremely tough to crack even in coming years. HS Prannoy was the only Indian singles male to win a Super 500 level title in the last two years, Sen was tending to myriad injuries and not in form for most part.
His defensive game style is dazzlingly gritty, but so bruising and brutal on his body, that he cannot be expected to be a year-round workhorse aiming for every title. One nasty back / shoulder injury can set him back years. His fitness just won’t permit a round-the-year calendar. Sen will need to prioritise Olympics over mindless pursuit of Tour titles and points, just like PV Sindhu did in her early years.

Having peaked for the Olympics, he did well to reach semifinals. An opportunity to fight for bronze isn’t a guarantee at Los Angeles in a sport like badminton, where 70 percent of the top names in both singles, were nursing niggles, and felled fitness. Carolina Marin had recovered, and re-emerged, but still went out in tears to injury on the brink of the final. Tai Tzu Ying just couldn’t move in her final effort. The male Chinese and Indonesians, in the 23 to 29 age bracket, were soundly thrashed. So when you earn the chance to gun for bronze and are at your fittest like Sen was, a set and 8-3 up too, but still flub the opportunity due to nerves, your straight-shooting coach isn’t going to mollycoddle.
With badminton and its bustling Top 15, you just cannot sit back, tell yourself you are still young, fit and raring, with time on hand, and project a hopeful medal four years from now. Coaches seethed in Paris, because they pretty much know 24×7, 365 days, 4 years, how excruciatingly tough medalling is. There’s a reason they don’t waste their time penning pretty inane inspirational scribbles on Twitter and instead honestly parse through what went wrong, instead of promising a medal next time. So for Satwik-Chirag and Sen, this was a sucker punch.
Padukone is a legend who slogged without any support, in times when there was none on offer, to win his All England in 1980, before he got roundly criticised for chiding Lakshya, a player whom he had talent-scouted and singled out for perhaps the maximum funding made available to anyone who was in Paris, for the last 12 years.
India’s Lakshya Sen in action at the Port de la Chapelle Arena during the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo)
Sen’s coach Vimal Kumar had stood on the court for high-intensity multi-feed shuttle sessions till age 60. One of the sharpest feeders, the ace coach had plotted gameplans for every Olympic and All England upset Sen has scored.
And Pullela Gopichand got India the first two Olympic podiums, besides multiple World Championship medals, both with 6 am sessions, and analysing on the spot opponents barking out pinpoint instructions in competition crucibles that helped Nehwal, Sindhu, Srikanth, Sai Praneeth and Prannoy nail down wins. Even double Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen was brought down at the 2023 Worlds for Prannoy’s medal with Gopichand plotting. You don’t need to give him credit, but players will acknowledge his timely interventions that nick a point in sticky 17-17 kind of situations. And nail down career-defining medals. He missed his own, hence knows how much it hurts when you can’t win the podium knockouts. Badminton medals have always needed strong tactical backroom work.

These coaches know what they’re doing, and are also aware of the crucial difference between a medal and a non-medal. They live the disappointment with the player, unlike fans with their hot-takes, before moving onto the next topic to mutter.

The same is true for players. Olympic medals matter to athletes. They are the stamps of recognition tattooed onto your identity, which nobody can take away from you. No amount of sentimental Twitter poetry of loyal legions can replace that medal on the mantelpiece.This explains Neeraj Chopra’s disappointment at missing the gold and Padukone’s out-burst after Sen’s loss in the bronze-medal play off. Sen might see a lifetime of opportunities ahead of him in his young life, Padukone knows how fate can be fickle. The medal matters.