PV Sindhu: From an underdog to India's Olympic medallist

As Pusarla Venkata Sindhu storms her way into badminton finals of Rio Olympics, India’s hopes of winning gold medal pins on Sindhu’s performance as she descends in the tennis court opposite World’s number 1 player Carolina Marin in a few minutes from now.

Not much is known about her journey to the Olympics. From a 16-year-old watching Saina Nehwal win the 2012 London Olympics bronze to being India's lone badminton medal hope in the 2016 Games, we bring you some inspiring facts from Sindhu’s life that shows her impeccable journey from an underdog to an Olympic medalist:

1. Sindhu was born on July 5, 1995 in Hyderabad and her parents—P.V. Ramanna and P. Vijaya were both former professional volleyball players. Her father also won the Government of India 2000 Arjuna Award for his sport.

2. Although her parents were professional volleyball players, Pusarla was more interested in Badminton, which is started playing at 8 years old. She was a huge fan of Pullela Gopichand, who won the 2001 All England Open Badminton Championship by defeating Chen Hong.

3. She learnt the basics of the sport from Mehboob Ali and used to practice at the badminton courts of Indian Railway Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications in Secunderabad. She would travel 56 kms from her residence to practice every day and always had the dream to become an ace badminton player.

4. Later on, she joined Pullela Gopichand’s badminton academy. She won the 5th Servo All India ranking championship in doubles for under 10 years category, singles title at the Ambuja Cement All India ranking and under-14 team gold medal at the 51st National School Games in India, apart from several other national level tournaments.

5. The 21 year old player made India proud at international level when she won Asia Youth Under 19 Championship, beating Japanese player Nozomi Okuhara (the same one she defeated yesterday to enter Olympic's finals), and also stunned the world when she beat London 2012 Olympics gold medallist Li Xuerui of China in Li Ning China Masters Super Series tournament. In January this year, Sindhu again made the country proud by winning Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold women's single title.

6. The badminton champion currently ranks 10th in the world and was also awarded Arjuna Award in 2013. In March 2015, P.V. Sindhu became the youngest recipient of the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour.

7. She is the second-highest-ranked women’s singles player from India after Olympic bronze medalist and No. 2 Saina Nehwal.

(Image credit: Indiatimes)