15 Facts About Pullela Gopichand

Pullela Gopichand was born on 16 November 1973 and is an Indian former badminton player.

Pullela Gopichand won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001, becoming the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone.

Pullela Gopichand is the only Indian coach to win the "Honorable Mention" by the International Olympic Committee at the 2019 Coaches Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Pullela Gopichand was born on 16 November 1973 near Chirala Town to Pullela Subash Chandra and Pullela Subbaravamma, in Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh.

Pullela Gopichand did his schooling in St Paul's High School, Hyderabad.

Pullela Gopichand was the captain of the Indian combined universities badminton team in 1990 and 1991.

Pullela Gopichand is trained under Prakash Padukone, and Ganguly Prasad at the SAI Bangalore.

Pullela Gopichand won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Indian national games, 1998, held at Imphal.

Pullela Gopichand 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.

Pullela Gopichand defeated then world number one Peter Gade in the semi-finals before defeating Chen Hong of China to lift the trophy.

Pullela Gopichand became the second Indian to achieve the feat after Prakash Padukone, who won in 1980.

Pullela Gopichand served as the official Indian Olympic Badminton Team coach at the 2016 Rio Olympics held in Brazil.

In 2003, Pullela Gopichand started promoting running through a 10K run Foundation by arranging the annual run conducting training programmes for budding athletes.

Pullela Gopichand tied up with National Athletics Coach Nagpuri Ramesh to train and mentor these budding athletes.

Pullela Gopichand tied up with the Mytrah Group, a renewable energy company and started the Gopichand-Mytrah Foundation.