THE GREAT COACHES

Pullela Gopichand

As a player Gopichand won his first National Badminton Championship title in 1996, and went on to win the title five times in a row, until 2000. In 1999 he won the Toulouse open championship in France and the Scottish open championship. And then in 2001 he won the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships. He started coaching in 2004, and in 2008 founded the Gopichand Badminton Academy.

In the last 120 years, India has won 35 Olympic medals; Gopichand has coached 3 of these from the Academy he set up. He also coached players to win 4 World Championship medals, including 1 Gold  and 15 Super series titles.