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Pullela Gopichand in his lecture talked about His personal journey from the year 1991-2000 was
his own journey as well as some future ideas for traumatic, where he valiantly battled two grave
supporting sports. knee injuries and yet managed to win some major

He was introduced to sports after moving to titles including the All England Championship. He
Hyderabad in 1985. He began with cricket and believes that competing with oneself is what will
slowly drifted to tennis and finally settled on bring out the best in oneself.
badminton which his parents thought to be an Gradually, his body was giving way due to multiple
affordable game, as the parking lot was completely injuries and that was the starting point of the
empty. At that time, his aim was to be a state coaching journey in 2004 with 25 children. He
champion. His hard work and determination paid had to face dejection at every point for funding
off. He was determined to start practice early and and setting up of his academy which ultimately
finish late and thus he won the State Championship. resulted in him mortgaging his Jubilee Hill house
In the year 1991, after winning the Junior National in Hyderabad for Rs.3 crore. According to him,
championship and landing himself a job in Tata “One has to risk what one has and ultimate hard
Steel, he finally found a clear path for himself, i.e work matters, where one has to go beyond one’s
to become a sportsperson. He shared that being boundaries”, because sports is not only about
born in a family where the other sibling is from an excellence and medals, it’s about the spirit and the
IIT, it takes a huge amount of determination and pride that comes with it.
support to achieve this feat of pursuing sports.

In the first international match in Malaysia, the
Indian Badminton Contingent lost in the first
round. The Indians could not stand up to the
aggression and techniques of the Chinese players.
He believes one of his key points to success is
the kid that is still alive in him who believes that
winning is possible. Adding to which, he narrated
an incident from his initial days where in a whole
room of demotivated people, he stayed optimistic
with a winning rage in him.