Gopichand mortgaged house to build Olympic medalists’ academy

Gopichand mortgaged house to build badminton academy. Pic twitter.com
Gopichand mortgaged house to build badminton academy. Pic twitter.com

Internet Desk: One will be in tears knowing the sufferings Gopichand burdened himself and his family to build up the academy that produced two Olympic medalists. Cherishing the dream of producing Olympic medalists Gopichand went ahead to risk any burden not only for him but also for his family. Finally his dream came true.

Standing at 42, Gopichand is about to complete his dreams of winning Olympic medals. At this point he gravely recalls his painful days he struggled when his family stood by him.

Gopichand recalled, “I remember having gone to a certain PSU few years back. I was made to wait for three continuous days outside the room when they promised me support for badminton but after waiting from 9 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening after three days a certain officer at a high position came up to me and said that badminton doesn’t have the eyeballs to be a world sport.”

Then he depicts of his determination to fight back, “That was the last day I had gone ahead and asked anybody for sponsorship. The same night I went back home and thanks to my parents and wife, we mortgaged our house and that is how the academy came up”.

Gopichand is not only thankful to his family but also he thanks his own fate that did not led him towards academics. He feels that he was lucky enough to fail the IIT exams. According to him, “My brother and I both played sports. He was a state champion. He wrote his IIT exam and passed. He went to IIT and stopped playing. I wrote the engineering exam and failed and I continued in sports and this is where I stand now.”

The Dronacharya winner coach is now thinking of leaving the dream run. However, not announced anything till now, he is thinking of departing from coaching too.

“I think maybe I should retire now because my goals were all finished and done with,” he said on a lighter note.