India’s PV Sindhu fell short of a historic gold medal and settled for silver as she lost to world No.1 Carolina Marin 21-19, 12-21, 15-21 in the woman’s badminton singles final of Rio Olympics 2016.
Sindhu may not have won the gold but she has earned a place in Olympic history.
Sindhu became the fifth Indian woman to clinch an individual medal in the Olympics after Karnam Malleshwari (weightlifting bronze) in 2000, Mary Kom (boxing bronze) and Saina Nehwal (badminton bronze) in 2012 Olympics and Sakshi Malik (wrestling bronze) in Rio 2016.
The momentum and confidence was on Sindhu’s side but Marin showed why she is the world champion when she outplayed her opponent in the second set. The Spanish girl opened up a five-point lead early in the contest when she led Sindhu 6-1. The world champion was quickly off the blocks and she led Sindhu 11-2 at the break.
P. V. Sindhu received international attention as she broke into the Top 20 in the Badminton World Federation rankings released on 21 September 2012. On 10 August 2013, Sindhu became the first ever Indian women’s singles player to win a medal at the 2013 World Championships. On 30 March 2015, she received India’s fourth highest civilian honor, the Padma Shri. On 18 August 2016, at the 2016 Summer Olympics, she became the first Indian woman to reach the finals in the Badminton event of an Olympic games after beating Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the semi-finals. She subsequently won the Silver medal at the 2016 rio Olympics and became the first Indian shuttler to win a Silver medal and the youngest Indian overall to make a podium finish in the Olympics. She also became the second Indian female shuttler to win an Olympic medal after Saina Nehwal’s Bronze medal at 2012 Summer Olympics at London.
