Pullela Gopichand is a former Indian badminton player. Currently, he is the Chief National Coach for the India national badminton team. He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, becoming the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone. He runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan – India's third highest civilian award – in 2014

Early life

Pullela Gopichand was born on 16 November 1973 near Chirala Town to Mr. Pullela Subash Chandra and Mrs. Pullela Subbaravamma, in Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. Initially, he was interested in playing cricket, but his elder brother encouraged him to take up badminton instead. His family settled in Nizamabad for a while. He did his schooling in St. Paul's High School, Hyderabad. He joined A. V. College, Hyderabad and graduated in public administration. He was the captain of the Indian combined universities badminton team in 1990 and 1991.

Playing career

Pullela was coached by S. M. Arif before Prakash Padukone accepted him at Prakash Padukone academy. He also trained under Ganguly Prasad at the SAI Bangalore.[9][10] Pullela won his first National Badminton Championship title in 1996, and went on to win the title five times in a row, until 2000. He won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Indian national games, 1998, held at Imphal. At the international level, he represented India in 3 Thomas Cup tournaments. In 1996, he won a gold in the SAARC badminton tournament at Vijayawada and defended his crown in the next games held at Colombo in 1997. At the 1998 Commonwealth Games, he won a silver in the team event and a bronze in men's singles.

In 1999, he won the Toulouse Open Championship in France and the Scottish Open Championship in Scotland. He also emerged as the winner at the Asian satellite tournament held at Hyderabad in the same year, and lost in the final match of the German Grand Prix Championship.

In 2001, he won the All England Open Badminton Championships at Birmingham. He defeated then world number one Peter Gade in the semi-finals before defeating Chen Hong of China to lift the trophy. He became the second Indian to achieve the feat after Prakash Padukone, who won in 1980.

Achievements

Asian Championships

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
2000	Istora Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia	Taufik Hidayat	4–15, 12–15	Bronze

Commonwealth Games

Year	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result
1998	Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Wong Choong Hann	1–15, 11–15	Bronze

IBF World Grand Prix

The World Badminton Grand Prix sanctioned by International Badminton Federation (IBF) from 1983 to 2006.

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
1997	India Open	Hariyanto Arbi	4–15, 7–15	Runner-up
1999	French Open	Chen Gang	8–15, 15–10, 10–15	Runner-up
1999	German Open	Xia Xuanze	3–15, 15–13, 4–15	Runner-up
2001	All England Open	Chen Hong	15–12, 15–6	Winner

IBF International

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
1999	Le Volant d'Or de Toulouse	Richard Vaughan	15–13, 14–15, 15–6	Winner
1999	Scottish Open	Siddharth Jain	15–7, 15–10	Winner
1999	India International	Ajit Wijetilek	15–6, 15–13	Winner
2004	India Asian Satellite	J. B. S. Vidyadhar	15–6, 15–1	Winner

Coaching career

After retiring from his playing career, Pullela founded the Gopichand Badminton Academy in 2008 after reportedly mortgaging his own house. Nimmagadda Prasad, a renowned industrialist, donated ₹50 million (equivalent to ₹140 million or US$1.8 million in 2020) on a condition that his academy win a medal for India at the Olympics in badminton. The academy produced several badminton players including Saina Nehwal, P. V. Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Parupalli Kashyap, Srikanth Kidambi, Arundhati Pantawane, Gurusai Datt, and Arun Vishnu. Saina Nehwal went on to win the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, while P. V. Sindhu went on to win the silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the bronze medal at the pandemic-hit 2020 Summer Olympics, and also became the first Indian to win the gold medal at the BWF World Championships. Pullela also served as the official Indian Olympic Badminton Team coach at the 2016 Rio Olympics held in Brazil.

Awards and honours

Arjuna Award, 1999.
Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, 2001 
Padma Shri, 2005
Dronacharya Award, 2009 
Padma Bhushan, 2014
Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar, 2013, under Category Establishment and Management of Sports Academies of Excellence- Pullela Gopichand Academy of Badminton, Hyderabad
He was bestowed upon an honorary doctorate by IIT Kanpur on the occasion of their 52nd Convocation.

Rewards for Coaching the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics silver medallist P. V. Sindhu

₹10 million (US$130,000) from the Government of Telangana
₹1 million (US$13,000) from Badminton Association of India
₹5 million (US$63,000) from the Government of Andhra Pradesh

Personal life

Pullela married fellow badminton player P. V. V. Lakshmi on 5 June 2002. They have two children, a daughter named Gayathri and a son named Vishnu.

In Dec 2020, he launched guided meditation sessions for athletes named "Dhyana for Sports" in the App Dhyana. The sessions have been designed by him based on his experience training athletes. He is also the Director of Dhyana. Dhyana, in collaboration with Heartfulness Institute, was the official meditation partner of the Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) for Tokyo 2020 Olympic games.