New Delhi:
Days after badminton legend and Deepika Padukone’s father Prakash Padukone criticised badminton player Lakshya Sen for his bronze-medal playoff loss at the Paris Olympics despite an early lead, his son-in-law Ranveer Singh gave a shout-out to Lakshya for his impressive performance. On his Instagram story, the actor wrote, “What a player! What endurance, What agility, What range of shots, What focus, What grit, What smarts, Scintillating badminton on display! It’s difficult to encapsulate just how brilliant he’s been at the Olympics. Missed out narrowly in a game of extremely small margins. But he’s only 22 and he’s just getting started.”
ICYDK: Prakash Padukone was “not happy” with Lakshya Sen’s defeat to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia after initially leading the match in the Paris Olympics 2024. On Monday, Prakash Padukone expressed disappointment with Lakshya’s loss, stating that players need to “introspect” and question their efforts to secure Olympic medals. He said that despite the extensive support system available, including sports science teams, physios, trainers and nutritionists, players still need to work harder.
He said, “Maybe, you know, the players are not working hard enough. Maybe, it is not enough to get a medal at the Olympics. So you (players) need to work also. You have a full sports science support team. Each of the players has their own physios, strength-and-conditioning trainers and nutritionists. How much more can you do? I don’t think any other country… including the US and all, will have so much facilities.”
He added, “Mistakes will happen, everybody is comfortable playing against the wind because you can play freely without any hesitation but Lakshya probably needs both. A little bit of mind training and the focus on mind training plus a little bit of practice and a little better control he needs to work on the court as well.”
For the unversed, “Lakshya Sen faltered under pressure in his bronze medal match against Lee Zii Jia, resulting in the Indian badminton team failing to secure any medals at the Paris Games.”
