While an emotional PV Sindhu clamored for the bronze medal after beating China’s He Bing Xiao in the badminton women’s singles on Saturday, it was hard to miss an even more emotional scream from Park Tae-sang in the background. When Sindhu happily raised her arms and a glimmer of relief appeared on her face, her coach Tae-Sang was delighted; Even through the mask one can at once find out just how much it means to Koreans. Sindhu created history by becoming India’s most successful female Olympian and was the fourth shutter to win consecutive Olympics medals in women’s singles.
“This is a pivotal moment in my leadership career because as a player and coach I have never won an Olympic medal. So this is the first time for me too. I am so happy, can’t express myself,” Park would later tell PTI after the bronze medal match. At the 2004 Athens Games, Park was knocked out of the quarter-finals in the men’s singles and her reaction when Sindhu defeated Akane Yamaguchi in the quarters to reach the final was – if not better – equally attractive. Seeing his ward as the obstacle he could never do during his playing days, Park slipped on his feat.
“This is a pivotal moment in my leadership career because as a player and coach I have never won an Olympic medal. So this is the first time for me too. I am so happy, cannot express myself.’ National coach of the Korean badminton team for five years from 2013 to 2018 before being selected for India’s men’s singles players, but after the sudden departure of women’s coach Kim Ji Hyun, he took over the task of coaching Sindhu in late 2019. Handled.
Ever since she rose to the limelight during Sindhu’s success, a constant figure by her side has been Pullela Gopichand, under whom she trained and molded her career for the most part of her career. But since 2017, Sindhu started training under different coaches, partly being dedicated to her academy and other national players, Sindhu needed a full-time coach who focused solely on her . Enter Indonesia’s Mulyo Handyo. Handoyo worked with veteran Tawfiq Hidayat. Under Handyoyo, Sindhu began to see progress as a singles player with different training methods. Naturally an attacking player, Sindhu lacked a bit of consistency and fitness, which was worked on under Handoyo. Then came Korean Kim Ji Hyun, who was tasked with focusing on the singles players-mainly Saina Nehwal and Sindhu. Nehwal, however, did not train under Hyun and Sindhu received the award. In the same year Sindhu won the World Championship, but Hyun had to leave after months of struggle following the fall of her husband.
Park was already working with the Indian group at that time and after Hyun’s exit his attention shifted to Sindhu. But with Covid-19 disrupting training and the Tokyo Olympics being postponed, Park and Sindhu got down to work, first shifting the base from Gopichand Academy to the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, to gain the experience of playing in empty stadiums at Musashino Forest Sports Plaza. For . More importantly, Park and Sindhu started working on their weakness – defense.
“Defense has been a weakness for Sindhu, there is no problem with his attack. Every player, every coach knows this and today his defense was 200%. it was brilliant. In fact, throughout the tournament, except yesterday, she has been very good at defense,” Park told PTI. We are working on her net play and defense every day and I am glad it worked out. And that defensive game was on full display against Bing Xiao in the quarter itself. And it’s not just the technical aspect of Sindhu’s game that Park has been able to elevate. According to what we saw in Tokyo, there is a special bond between the two and if the coach’s role in badminton is very important not only in the preparation phase, but throughout.
“This is the first time a badminton player from India has won two Olympic medals in badminton, so it is a great achievement not only for Sindhu but also for my teaching life,” Park said. Sindhu also acknowledged the sacrifice of the coach for her success. “My coaches are happy. He put in a lot of effort and I want to thank him. He gave up everything to be with me during the pandemic. He must be missing his family. He always believed in me and in us.” ‘Finally done. [At the end of the match] I just shed tears and then went to my coach and hugged him,” she said after the bronze medal match.
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