Person of the Day: P. V. Sindhu's Long Climb to the Podium

Few athletes carry a country's expectations on court as visibly as P. V. Sindhu. For the better part of a decade, whenever India has watched a badminton final that mattered, she has usually been the one standing on the far side of the net, racket cocked, ready to launch one of the most feared smashes in the women's game. Her career journey, from a school-age beginner in Hyderabad to the first Indian woman with two Olympic medals, is one of the most complete success stories in Indian sport.

Pusarla Venkata Sindhu did not arrive fully formed. She built her game one early-morning session at a time, in a sport that rarely makes headlines until an Olympic fortnight. What follows is a look at how she started, the milestones that defined her rise, and where she stands today.

From a Hyderabad court to a serious vocation

Sindhu's introduction to badminton came young. Her father started her under coach Mehboob Ali in Hyderabad when she was around eight, and the sport quickly went from a pastime to a purpose. The decisive turn came when she joined the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy, run by the former All England champion who would shape much of India's modern badminton.

The commute alone said a lot about her resolve. Training under Gopichand meant long daily journeys across the city and pre-dawn starts, the unglamorous grind that precedes any breakthrough. Tall for her sport even as a teenager, Sindhu was being built into a player who could cover the court and finish points from the back of the court with sheer power.

The results came in age-group competition first. She made her mark on the junior circuit, including a standout run at the 2012 Asian Junior Championships, signalling that India had produced a singles player capable of competing well beyond Asia's traditional powerhouses.

The breakthrough years on the world stage

Sindhu announced herself to the senior game early. She claimed a bronze at the 2013 BWF World Championships and followed it with another bronze in 2014, becoming the first Indian woman to medal at the event and doing so in back-to-back years. For a player still in her late teens, that was rare territory.

The Commonwealth and Asian circuits filled out her résumé. She picked up a singles bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and steadily climbed the world rankings, beating top-ten opponents and establishing a reputation for raising her level at big tournaments rather than shrinking from them.

What set this phase apart was her temperament. Sindhu became known as a player who treated marquee occasions as her stage. That trait would soon turn her into one of the most consistent medal threats in the world game.

Rio 2016: the medal that changed everything

The 2016 Rio Olympics turned Sindhu into a household name. Then 21, she stormed through the draw and into the final, where she pushed Spain's Carolina Marin hard before taking silver. It made her the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal and, at the time, the youngest Indian to stand on an Olympic podium.

That result reframed Indian badminton. A nation that had long celebrated the occasional medal now had a young singles star with the game and nerve to contend at the very top, year after year.

The honours had already begun arriving. Sindhu received the Padma Shri in 2015 and the Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting award, in 2016. The recognition matched a rise that was anything but accidental.

A rivalry that lifted her — and a world title

The years after Rio were defined by a string of agonising near-misses in finals, many of them against Japan's Nozomi Okuhara and Marin. Sindhu collected silver at the 2017 and 2018 World Championships and finished runner-up at several major events, earning a tag she clearly disliked: the great finalist.

She answered it emphatically. At the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals, she became the first Indian to win that season-ending title. Then came the moment that defined her career.

At the 2019 World Championships in Basel, Sindhu beat Okuhara in the final to win gold, becoming the first Indian woman to be crowned world champion. That medal took her tally at the event to five — one gold, two silver and two bronze — matching the record for the most World Championship medals in women's singles. The label of nearly-woman was retired for good.

Tokyo, Birmingham and a place in the record books

Sindhu's appetite for the big occasion held. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021, she won bronze, becoming the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals and India's most decorated female Olympian. Reaching a second Games podium, in a sport with brutal depth, underlined that Rio had been no fluke.

The milestones kept coming. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, she finally added a singles gold, beating Canada's Michelle Li in the final to complete her set of Commonwealth singles colours after earlier bronze and silver finishes. Her honours list grew too, with the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian awards, recognising her sustained excellence.

A quick snapshot of the milestones that define her:

• Rio 2016: Olympic silver, India's first by a woman
• 2019 Basel: World Championship gold, a national first
• Tokyo 2020: Olympic bronze, becoming India's most decorated woman Olympian
• 2022 Birmingham: Commonwealth Games singles gold
• Civilian honours: Padma Shri, Khel Ratna and Padma Bhushan

Where she stands now, and what comes next

Injuries and the natural churn of a long career slowed Sindhu's ranking in recent seasons, but she has shown no sign of stepping away from competition. She returned from a layoff to lead India to a gold medal at the 2025 Badminton Asia Team Championships, the country's first title in that event, a result built on her experience anchoring the team.

Her influence now reaches beyond her own matches. In 2025 she was elected chair of the BWF Athletes' Commission, giving players a voice in how the global game is run, and she remains one of Indian sport's most visible and bankable names. She has also added depth to her trophy cabinet on the tour, including a third title at the Syed Modi International, putting her among the event's most successful players.

What makes Sindhu's story worth telling is not a single medal but the arc of it. She turned early promise into senior medals, converted painful finals into a world title, and stretched a career most expected to peak after one Olympics into a run spanning multiple Games. For a generation of young Indians taking up a racket, the message is plain enough: the climb is long, the losses sting, and the work only ends when you decide it does. Sindhu has not decided yet.