PV Sindhu, India's only woman athlete to win two individual medals at the Olympics, received a warm welcome as she landed in Delhi on Tuesday after winning the bronze medal in Tokyo. Sindhu defeated China's He Bing Jiao in the bronze medal match in straight games (21-13, 21-15) to register a historic win. With a podium finish at the Tokyo Games, Sindhu became only the second Indian athlete after wrestler Sushil Kumar to win back-to-back Olympic medals.
Interestingly, Sushil too won a bronze and a silver. He finished third at the Beijing Games and went on to win silver medal in 2012 in London.
Sindhu had a four-match winning streak leading up to the semi-final clash against world number one Tai Tzu Ying in Tokyo.
The ace Indian shuttler put in a valiant effort but her Chinese Taipei opponent proved too good on the day as she suffered a heartbreaking loss. Sindhu lost 18-21 and 12-21 in the semi-final clash.
After winning the bronze medal, Sindhu said that as compared to the Rio Olympics, pressure and expectations were very high in Tokyo.
"Very happy that I have won the bronze medal and very proud. It's not easy to win back-to-back medals at the Olympics. It was very different in 2016 and it's been very different in Rio," Sindhu told NDTV.
On being asked whether she would be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and have ice cream with him, as they had discussed in a lighter vein during an interaction before the Olympics, Sindhu said they would meet on August 15.
"The pressure, the expectations were very high. It was very important for me to be calm and composed and just give my best. Being the first Indian woman to win two individual Olympic medals will give me the motivation to achieve a lot more and work harder," she concluded.