Gopichand’s Badminton Academy, which is located at Gachibowli, Hyderabad, contributed towards the London Olympics in the year 2012. The academy also helped P.V Sindhu to grab the silver medal. Most of us don’t know the inspiring story behind the formation of the Badmintion Academy.  

The story can be explained with the help of the following milestones which helped in the formation of the academy.

In the year 2003, Gopichand was awarded with five acres of land by the AP government. The land has been offered at lease for 45 years at a nominal rate. In the same year, Gopichand spoke with Yonex for the sponsorship and he also wanted a foreign coach’s involvement.

In the year 2004, after formulating the plans for the badminton academy, Gopichand approached Nimmagadda Prasad to raise money for the formation of the academy. Mr. Prasad immediately offered US$500,000 and gave his assistance so as to raise an additional amount of US$ 2 Million.

Nimmagadda Prasad as well as Gopichand found a great difficulty in raising the additional amount and over the time, Mr. Prasad increased his contribution to US$ 1.25 Million.

Gopichand could gather US$1.75 Million only including other donations and his wife who is a former Olympian supported Gopichand as well as contributed to the effort of securing the monetary support.

The project was completed at the cost of US$2.5 Million in the year 2008 after mortgaging Gopichand’s home to raise the additional amount for the venture.
After sending the common wealth sports team to this academy for training, the government increased the daily fee per player from US$5 to US$20.

The construction of Gopichand’s badminton Academy had been modeled after Prakash Padukone’s Badminton Academy which is located at Bangalore.

The players like Srikanth Kadambi, Gurusai Dutt, Parupalli Kashyap, Arundathi Pantawane, Prannoy Kumar, Saina Nehwal and P.V Sindhu are from Gopichand’s Badminton Academy.

Players from India can perform wonders if the government of our country can extend their helping hand, in providing infrastructure facilities as well as better training facilities, to the people like Gopichand.