Badminton, Olympics 2024: Satwik-Chirag India’s favourites for podium; Chinese hurdle for PV Sindhu

As we count down to the 2024 Olympic Games, the top competitors will be expected to continue to perform at the highest level, while others will hope to punch above their weight and reach for a spot on the podium. In the build up to the mega event in Paris, Scroll looks at the eight different Olympic disciplines where Indians have returned with a medal.

Badminton has been one of the more successful sports for India at the Olympics in recent times. Shuttlers from the country have medalled in each of the past three editions, and so naturally, there are expectations to keep the streak alive at the 2024 Olympics.

Shouldering those expectations at the La Chapelle Arena in Paris will be a seven-member Indian contingent. These seven athletes will compete in a total of four different events, with mixed doubles being the only event in the sport without any Indian representation.

The build up to the Olympic Games have been quite bumpy for most of the Indian shuttlers.

Lakshya Sen, struggling to qualify with injuries and poor form, parted ways with coach Anup Sridhar and got back together with his childhood coach Vimal Kumar last November.

The two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu bid good bye to coach Park Tae Sang, who guided her to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medal, before joining hands with Hafiz Hashim in July last year. That partnership, however, did not last long and Sindhu roped in Indonesian Agus Dwi Santoso in January just months before the Olympics.

The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto, meanwhile, joined hands only in December 2022 to form an unlikely team and were then locked in a thrilling battle for qualification with compatriots Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand.

It is only the men’s doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and the men’s singles shuttler HS Prannoy, who have had a comparatively smooth run in the Race to Paris Olympics.

Collision course in men’s singles

Men’s singles will be the only badminton event with two Indians in Paris. The 2024 Games will mark an Olympic debut for both Prannoy and Sen.

This is the first time in two decades that two Indians will compete in men’s singles in an edition of the Olympics. Nikhil Kanetkar and Abhinn Shyam Gupta were the last to do so at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Though unfortunately for Sen and Prannoy, they are slated to run into each other in as early as the pre-quarterfinals, provided both of them make it out of their respective groups following the round robin stage.

Prannoy, seeded 13th for the competition, has an easy group to start off his campaign. He has been drawn in Group K with Vietnam’s Le Duc Phat and Germany’s Fabian Roth. The world No 13 Indian is ranked higher than the two, who are placed well below 70 in the BWF rankings. Prannoy, 32, should have a comfortable route out of the group with only one shuttler from the group slated to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

Sen, meanwhile, is in a tricky spot. His inability to defend his title at the Canada Open Super 500 due to visa issues meant that he had a drastic fall in the rankings and enters the Olympics unseeded. He has been drawn in Group L alongside the third seed Jonatan Christie.

Though the 22-year-old from Almora, now the world No 19, has ran Christie close in their previous meetings, but trails 1-4 in the head to head count. His last win over the Indonesian was in 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

To make matters worse, Sen’s group also has four shuttlers – 2020 Tokyo Olympics semi-finalist Kevin Cordon and Belgium’s Julien Carragi being the other two. And with only one shuttler qualifying for the knockouts from the group, the Indian has a difficult hill to climb.

Even if Sen makes out of the group, beating Christie, he’ll likely have to go up against Prannoy in the first knockout match – the Round of 16.

If not Sen, Prannoy will have Christie in the pre-quarterfinals against whom he trails 3-6 in the head-to-head count with the last of his three wins recorded at the 2021 Thailand Open.

A tough road awaits both Prannoy and Sen on their journey if they are to become India’s first-ever badminton men’s singles medallist.

Sindhu eyes third Olympic medal

Sindhu enters the 2024 Paris Olympics, not as a favourite, but as a dark horse. She has struggled for form since the long injury lay-off following the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games and had a forgettable 2023 season, recording as many as seven first round exits.

Though she has slowly shown signs of improvement this season, Sindhu remains without a singles title win since the the Commonwealth Games in August 2022.

The 29-year-old double Olympic medallist, however, has received the best possible draw she could have hoped for. She was drawn in Group M alongside a lowly-ranked Kritin Kuuba and Fathimath Razzaq of Estonia and Maldives respectively.

She is then expected to face off against China’s He Bing Jiao and reigning champion Chen Yu Fei in the Round of 16 and the quarter-finals respectively. While these potential match-ups will by no means be an easy battle for Sindhu, the fact that she has managed to avoid her Achilles heel Tai Tzu Ying, long-time rival Carolina Marin, and the young top seed An Se Young, whom Sindhu has never beaten, means the Indian has had a slightly favourable draw.

Add to the fact that she has never lost to Chinese shuttlers in nine meetings at the World Championships and the Olympics, and Sindhu seems to be well placed.

Women’s singles badminton has been India’s most successful event at the Olympics in recent past. Sania Nehwal won the country’s first medal in the sport with a bronze at London 2012. Sindhu then won silver in Rio 2016 and bronze in Tokyo 2020.

Sindhu now has the chance to complete a hat-trick and become the most decorated Indian Olympian in an individual sport.

Tough ask in women’s doubles

After an intense battle in the Race to Paris rankings, Ponappa and Crasto pipped the more fancied Treesa and Gayatri to qualify for the Games.

The duo have been drawn in Group C along with fourth seeds Chiharu Shida and Nami Matsuyama of Japan, and a higher ranked South Korean team of Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong.

They’ll also have to face off against Australia’s Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu, against whom the Indians will be the most confident.

Unlike the singles events, two pairs from the group will advance to the knockout stages – quarter-finals – in doubles. Ponnappa and Crasto, though, will still have a tough ask against the superior Japanese and the Korean pairs.

They will have to pull off an unexpected win against either of those two teams and earn the win over the Australians to have any chance of making it through.

Realistically speaking, the women’s doubles event offers the worst odds of a medal for India across the four disciplines, but Ponnappa – playing her third Olympic Games – and Crasto, on her debut, will be determined to prove critics wrong.

Rankireddy-Shetty firm medal contenders

It is not often that a double medallist of PV Sindhu’s stature competes at the Olympics, and someone else is pronounced as the country’s best medal bet. But, such has been the calibre and consistency in this short three-year Olympic cycle of Rankireddy and Shetty.

The duo made their Olympic debut in Tokyo and fell just short of the quarter-finals, even after beating top seeds Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo in the group stage.

Rankireddy and Shetty, however, have grown from strength to strength ever since with coach Mathias Boe for company. In the three years since, they have they have won the Thomas Cup, Commonwealth Games gold, Asian Games gold, Asian Championships gold, World Championships bronze, and have also climbed up to No 1 in world rankings.

Rankireddy and Shetty enter the Olympics as the third seeds and are placed in Group C with France’s Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar, Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto, and Germany’s Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Seidel.

While the Indians should be able to make it through from the group without any issues, the draws for knockouts – starting from quarter-finals – will be made later, meaning the road ahead remains unclear.

Rankireddy and Shetty’s recent consistent performances slot them in as medal hopefuls, but men’s doubles has been a volatile event off late with no clear favourites. Besides, fans would also hope that Rankireddy’s dodgy shoulder holds up well during the Games.

With reports indicating a possible exit for coach Boe post the Olympics, the 2012 London Olympics silver medallist would want to end on a high, guiding his wards to a better colour around their neck.

The badminton events at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be held from July 27 to August 5

Indian Contingent

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, HS Prannoy, Ashwini Ponnappa, Tanisha Crasto