"Received Rs 1.50 Crore From Whom?": Badminton Star Ashwini Ponnappa Refutes Olympics Funding Report
India's badminton star Ashwini Ponnappa has refuted reports of receiving Rs 1.50 crore as part of TOPS funding from the government for the Paris Olympic Games.
Following Indian badminton stars' dismal campaign at the Paris Olympics, many shuttlers have been criticised for their performance in the quadrennial event, especially considering the support they have received from authorities and the government. Even Prakash Padukone, former All-England winner and Lakshya Sen's coach, tore into the athletes for their failure to step up and deliver a medal. Reflecting on India's poor badminton show in the Paris Games, a report in PTI highlighted the sort of money that badminton stars received from the TOPS scheme. However, shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa has called the report 'a lie'.
A report in PTI stated that HS Prannoy, a bronze-medallist at the 2023 World Championships and Asian Games, received Rs 1.8 crore for training. His performance in the Paris Olympics was hindered by Chikungunya, leading to a loss in the pre-quarterfinals.
The report also said that Ashwini and Tanisha, women's doubles partners at the Paris Olympics, on the other hand, received Rs 1.5 crore each in support. They were eliminated in the group stage itself.
Reacting to the report, however, Ashwini fumed, saying she didn't receive any money at all.
"How can an article be written without getting facts right? How can this lie be written? Received 1.5 CR each? From whom? For what ? I haven't received this money. I was not even part of any organisation or TOPS for funding," she wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The government also reportedly spent a total of Rs 5.62 crores on men's doubles duo of Satwik-Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty but they were upset by Malaysia's Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarter-finals, prompting their Danish coach Mathias Boe to quit coaching.
The government had also reportedly spent Rs 26.60 lakh and Rs 9.33 lakh sanctioned for Sindhu and Lakshya's training in Germany and France, respectively.
PV Sindhu, India's marquee women's singles Player, is said to have received Rs 3.13 crore in support from the government. She was unable to progress beyond the pre-quarterfinals.
As a whole, the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Mission Olympic Cell reportedly allocated Rs 72.03 crore on the badminton contingent alone, from the total pool of nearly Rs 470 crore spent on India's Olympic preparations across 16 disciplines.
With PTI Inputs