Parupalli Kashyap turns 34: How the ace shuttler overcame asthma to rule the badminton court

At the 2012 Olympic Games, Parupalli Kashyap conquered the imagination of the entire country when he became the first Indian to reach the quarter-finals of the men’s singles badminton.

Kashyap, born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, turned 34 on Tuesday. His parents enrolled him in a training camp when he was 11. 

However, the shuttler faced a major setback in his career when he was diagnosed with asthma, in 2004. But with sheer willpower and proper medication, Kashyap overcame the condition and was taken in by Pullela Gopichand. 

Since then he has championed the cause of spreading awareness on asthma. 

In 2010, he represented India at the Commonwealth Games, where he won the bronze medal in the singles and a silver medal in the mixed team event. 

After his feat in the 2012 Olympics, the badminton ace was awarded the Arjuna award in the same year. But his best was yet to come.

Kashyap’s golden chapter was written when he won the gold medal in the men’s singles at the Commonwealth Games in 2014. He cruised into the finals at Glasgow and defeated Derek Wong of Singapore. 

The ace shuttler’s hopes of grabbing an Olympic medal was crushed when he had to pull out of the 2016 Rio Olympics due to a surgery in his right knee just before the Games. 

Since then injuries have quite often hampered his outings.

In 2018, the Kashyap tied the knot with his long-time love interest and the apple of Indian-badminton-fanatic’s eye, Saina Nehwal. Through coaching Saina, Kashyap reinvented his love for the sport during his own career lows. 

“When I was training her and sitting for her matches, I also wanted to play the tournament. I thought I don’t just want to be a coach here.

“That helped me come back. I got motivated to train again and everything fell in place. Coaching her helped me and it helped her,” Kashyap revealed in an interview with the Olympic Channel. 

Saina, who first meet Kashyap in a badminton coaching camp in 1997, took to Instagram to wish her husband on his birthday. 

Earlier this year, Kashyap had questioned the SAI’s (Sports Authority of India) decision of his omission from the national badminton camp in Hyderabad and said he still has an ‘outside chance’ to get into the plane for Tokyo Olympics.