Set to return after an injury-induced break, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu is aware the road to Paris will be "challenging" and she needs to be "smarter" in her pursuit of coveted gold medal in the French capital.
Former world champion Sindhu has been enduring a lean patch. She has suffered injury setbacks and a dip in form in the last 18 months. She suffered stress fracture on her left ankle during the successful 2022 CWG campaign and later sustained another injury on left knee during the French Open in October last year, forcing her out for three months.
"I would say, this Olympics is going to be a different experience because the 2016 and 2020 Olympics were very different. Paris will be more challenging but at the same time, I have much more experience and I will have to be much smarter this time," Sindhu told PTI in an interaction.
The 28-year-old from Hyderabad was in Mumbai on Thursday at Great Place To Work's FOR ALL summit.
"In women's circuit, players in the top 10-15 are tough. It is important to be focused and have a strategy so that you can switch to plan B if plan A doesn't work. It is important to stay calm as sometimes you can go blank. It is important to have a strong mindset," she said.
Desperate to find her mojo back after a series of low results, Sindhu parted ways with Korean coach Park Tae-sang early last year.
"Very fortunate to work with Prakash sir" - PV Sindhu
She trained with Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) Vidhi Chaudhary and then Malaysia's former All-England champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim in July but success continued to elude her.
Then former All England Champion Prakash Padukone reached out to her and soon she shifted her base to Bangalore. She is currently training under Indonesia's Agus Santoso at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy (PPBA), which operates out of the Padukone–Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence.
"I am very fortunate to work with Prakash sir because he is such a legend and him being a mentor helps. His training methods and ideas are helping me. As for Agus, I knew him for a long time when he was training our men's players."
The Olympics in Paris will take place from July 26th to August 11th.
