Pullela Gopichand

Indian Badminton Player

Pullela Gopichand was born on November 16, 1973 to Pullela Subash Chandra Bose and Pullela Subbaravamma at Nagandla, Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. He has won two Gold medals at the national games of 1998. His international career had already been kick started in 1991 when he was chosen to represent the Indian team against Malaysia. He made big strides at the highest level after winning two Gold medals at the SAARC Badminton Championship. He also later went on to win medals at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and won a variety of other tournaments like Toulouze Open, Scottish Open and the Asian Satellite Open. 

His career had been moving along smoothly. But his crowning glory came in 2001 when he became just the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to win the prestigious All England Championships. Gopichand took the charge as the Chief National Coach for Badminton Association of India in 2004. While Gopi inspired a generation of players to take up badminton during his playing days, as a coach, Gopi has nurtured that generation into top class players. 

Out of the many awards he received after 2001, one was a huge piece of land the government awarded to him in a prime area in Hyderabad. Gopi decided to use this land for the academy and set about acquiring the required funding and sponsors for it. The creme de la creme of Indian badminton now regularly trains at Gopi’s academy under his tutelage. The list includes Saina Nehwal, P.V Sindhu, P. Kashyap, K Sriknath and RMV Guru Sai Dutt. Apart from the top players there are many young and upcoming players in the academy as well. Under his guidance Indian Badminton Players has won Many Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Thomas and Uber Cup, Super Series, Gold Grand Prix and Other National and International Event. 

After finishing playing career with a desire to help nurture future badminton players from our country Mr. Pullela Gopichand started coaching in April 2004. All this has been possible due to the continuous efforts of Mr. P. Gopichand and also the excellent infrastructure available at the academy. The foundation sponsored and the academy hosted the Krishna Kaitan Memorial all India championships in 2008. 1200 junior players from all across the country have participated in the event. The academy today has over 100 players in the coaching program. Players from countries like Canada, France, Czech, Pakistan, and Srilanka have been undergoing training at the academy. The Academy has been officially nominated as “ASIA TRAINING CENTER” by the prestigious Badminton Asia Confederation. These allow the players, coaches and officials across Asia to be trained on the latest advancements, techniques and developments in Badminton.