Five years between Rio and Tokyo Olympics crucial for me, says PV Sindhu

Chennai: Double Olympics medallist P V Sindhu on Saturday said the five years between her silver and gold medal successes in Rio and Tokyo Olympics summits were ‘crucial’ for her as her mental aspect took her where she was today, and stressed on chasing one’s dreams to achieve the goal.

The famed shuttler also urged women to believe in themselves and focus on whatever they wanted to achieve in life.

”After playing in (Rio) Olympics, I had five years of gap and 2021 there is another Olympics (in Tokyo)…I think those five years were very crucial for me and the mental aspect took me to where I am today, because you always follow your dreams and that is very important in life.. you have to give up on some things, but I think at the end of the day, those things do not matter when you achieve your goal”, she said.

Sindhu was addressing graduates at the 58th convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras here, held through virtual mode.

Sindhu had ensured a successive podium finish in the Tokyo Olympics this year, winning a bronze and becoming the first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals.

On women empowerment, she said it was ”something we all speak.” ”But yeah I think we have to be proud of ourselves and we are not less in anything… if you see in sport, education, business and in every aspect, women are doing well”, she said ”As a woman, I am telling you we can achieve anything in life. coming to this stage, I just say one thing, that we can achieve anything in life, you just focus and give your best… work hard and believe in hope”, Sindhu, also a recipient of Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna and the Padma Bhushan awards, said.

Congratulating the graduates and their parents, she said, ”You have achieved a lot. You have to keep learning a lot more in life. This is just not the end. You need to learn different things and try out different things. You should not stop only with one thing, you learn a lot more”, she said IIT-M Director, Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi said the institute continues to attract substantial funding for its research and consultancy activities from the Government of India and the industry.

”In 2020-21, the institute received sanction for 179 Ministry sponsored projects worth Rs 359.25 crore and 533 consultancy and industry-sponsored research projects amounting to Rs 230.09 crore”, he said.

Ramamurthi said that despite the covid-19 pandemic, IIT-M maintained its growth momentum in attracting funding for research from both government and industry. The growth in the industry was particularly encouraging and heartwarming as IIT Madras was widely perceived to be the leader in research collaboration with the industry, he said.

Meanwhile, 1,962 students received the degrees which include the highest number of PhDs awarded in an academic year — 392 which includes PhDs, joint degree PhDs with foreign institutions, and dual degree PhDs.

Sumanth R Hegde bagged the President of India prize while E Santhosh Kumar was awarded the V Srinivasan Memorial Prize. The Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma prize was presented to Guhan Narayanan while Mayur Vikas Joshi was awarded the Governor’s Prize.