Pullela Gopichand (born 16 November 1973) is an Indian former 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 is the only Indian coach to win the "Honorable Mention" by the International Olympic Committee at the 2019 Coaches Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Early life
Pullela Gopichand was born on 16 November 1973 near Chirala Town to Pullela Subash Chandra and 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. 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
Men's singles
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"
! Year
! Venue
! Opponent
! Score
! Result
|- style="background:#ECF2FF"
| align="center" | 2000
| align="left" | Istora Senayan, Jakarta, Indonesia
| align="left" | Taufik Hidayat
| align="left" | 4–15, 12–15
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Bronze Bronze
|}
Commonwealth Games
Men's singles
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"
! Year
! Venue
! Opponent
! Score
! Result
|- style="background:#FFE4B5"
| align="center" |1998
| align="left" |Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
| align="left" | Wong Choong Hann
| align="left" | 1–15, 11–15
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Bronze Bronze
|}
IBF World Grand Prix
The World Badminton Grand Prix sanctioned by International Badminton Federation (IBF) from 1983 to 2006.
Men's singles
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"
! Year
! Tournament
! Opponent
! Score
! Result
|- style="background:#D4F1C5"
| align="center" | 1997
| align="left" | India Open
| align="left" | Hariyanto Arbi
| align="center" | 4–15, 7–15
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Runner-up
|- style="background:#D4F1C5"
| align="center" | 1999
| align="left" | French Open
| align="left" | Chen Gang
| align="center" | 8–15, 15–10, 10–15
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Runner-up
|- style="background:#D4F1C5"
| align="center" | 1999
| align="left" | German Open
| align="left" | Xia Xuanze
| align="center" | 3–15, 15–13, 4–15
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Runner-up
|- style="background:#D4F1C5"
| align="center" | 2001
| align="left" | All England Open
| align="left" | Chen Hong
| align="center" | 15–12, 15–6
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Winner
|}
IBF International
Men's singles
{| class="sortable wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"
! Year
! Tournament
! Opponent
! Score
! Result
|- style="background:#D5D5D5"
| align="center" | 1999
| align="left" | Le Volant d'Or de Toulouse
| align="left" | Richard Vaughan
| align="center" | 15–13, 14–15, 15–6
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Winner
|- style="background:#D5D5D5"
| align="center" | 1999
| align="left" | Scottish Open
| align="left" | Siddharth Jain
| align="center" | 15–7, 15–10
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Winner
|- style="background:#D5D5D5"
| align="center" | 1999
| align="left" | India International
| align="left" | Ajit Wijetilek
| align="center" | 15–6, 15–13
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Winner
|- style="background:#D5D5D5"
| align="center" | 2004
| align="left" | India Asian Satellite
| align="left" | J. B. S. Vidyadhar
| align="center" | 15–6, 15–1
| style="text-align:left; background:white" | Winner
|}
Coaching career
thumb|Pullela (left) and [[Kidambi Srikanth (middle) with the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Vijay Goel, c. 2017.]]
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 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.
The efforts have been successful with a number of their athletes earning national and international medals, like Deepthi Jeevanji (World record holder in the 400m T20 category), Nandini Agasara (Bronze medalist in the Heptathlon event of the 2022 Asian Games), Rangali Swathi, Kunja Rajitha (400m Gold Medalist in Indian Youth Games 2022).
- Padma Shri, 2005
- Dronacharya Award, 2009
- Padma Bhushan, 2014
- He was bestowed upon an honorary doctorate by IIT Kanpur on the occasion of their 52nd Convocation.
- Shuttler's Flick: Making Every Match Count - biographical book
Rewards for Coaching the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics silver medallist P. V. Sindhu
- from the Government of Telangana
- from Badminton Association of India
- 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, daughter Gayatri Gopichand, who is a women's doubles badminton player, and son 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.