“Received Rs 1.50 crore from whom?”: Badminton star Ashwini Ponnappa refutes Olympics funding report

Following the abysmal campaign of Indian badminton stars at the Paris Olympics, many shuttlers were criticized for their performance at the quadrennial event, especially considering the support they received from authorities and the government. Even Prakash Padukone, former England winner and Lakshya Sen’s coach, criticized the athletes for failing to perform and present a medal. Reflecting on India’s badminton performance at the Paris Games, a PTI report highlighted the kind of money badminton stars received from the TOPS scheme. However, transporter Ashwini Ponnappa termed the report as “a lie”.

A PTI report stated that HS Prannoy, bronze medalist at the World Championships and 2023 Asian Games, was paid Rs 1.8 crore for training. Her performance at the Paris Olympics was hampered by Chikungunya, leading to her defeat in the pre-quarterfinals.

The report also said that Paris Olympics women’s doubles partners Ashwini and Tanisha, 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 that he did not receive any money.

“How can an article be written without getting the facts right? How can this lie be written? I received 1.5 CR each? From whom? For what? I did not receive this money. I was not part of any organization or TOPS for funding,” he wrote she is on X (formerly Twitter).

The government also reportedly spent a total of Rs 5.62 million on men’s doubles pair Satwik-Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, but they were upset with Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the quarter-finals, which led to their Danish coach Mathias Boe stops training.

The government also reportedly spent Rs 26.60 lakh and Rs 9.33 lakh sanctioned for the training of Sindhu and Lakshya in Germany and France respectively.

PV Sindhu, India’s leading women’s singles player, is said to have received Rs 3.13 crore in support from the government. She failed to progress beyond the pre-quarterfinals.

As a whole, the Olympic Mission Cell of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) has reportedly allocated Rs 72.03 crore for the badminton contingent alone, out of the total nearly Rs 470 crore spent on India’s Olympic preparations across 16 disciplines.

With PTI inputs