'Why can't coaches..,' Ponnappa SLAMS Prakash Padukone's take after Lakshya Sen's Paris Olympics debacle

On Monday (Aug 5), Lakshya Sen lost his bronze medal match to Malaysia'sZii Jia Lee atthe ongoingParis Olympics 2024. With this, the Indian badminton squad ended their run in the showpiece event without a medal. After Lakshya's defeat, badminton legend Prakash Padukone reacted to Lakshya's defeat and didn't mince his words. Padukone, who was workingas Lakshya's mentor in the Paris Games, said, "...I am a little disappointed that we couldn't get one medal from badminton." He further questioned the shuttlers for their performance, saying they were provided with everything during preparations and, hence, asked players to take responsibility for the results. Now, Ashwini Ponnappa has reacted to Padukone's remark, saying it is unfair to "push the player under the bus"and lashed out at coaches for taking credit only when a player wins medals.

Reacting to Padukone's comments on Instagram, Ponnappa wrote, "Disappointing to see this. If a player wins, everyone jumps on the bandwagon to take credit and if they lose it's just the players' fault ?! Why aren't coaches held responsible for lack of preparation and getting the player ready?"

She further pointed out, "They are the first ones to take credit for wins, why not take responsibility for their players' losses as well?! At the end of the day, winning takes a team effort and losing is also the team's responsibility. We can't suddenly push the player under the bus and blame it all on the player."

The Indian badminton contingent had a disappointing run in the ongoing Paris Olympics. Despite comprising some big names such as PV Sindhu, Chirag Shetty-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, HS Prannoy, Lakshya, Ponnappa and more, they returned without a single medal.Talking about Ponnappa, she also fared poorly in the women's doubles and announced Paris 2024 as her Olympic swansong.