Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen revealed that his coach Prakash Padukone took away his phone at the recently concluded Paris Olympics 2024. Sen and other athletes of the Indian contingent that participated at the Paris Games met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence in New Delhi.
Lakshya Sen was one of the medal hopefuls for India at the Paris Olympics but his campaign came to an disappointing as he finished fourth after losing to Lee Zii Jia of Thailand in the bronze medal match. After losing the semifinal to eventual gold medalist Viktor Axelsen, Sen had another shot at winning his maiden Olympic medal.
However, the 22-year-old shuttler from Almora fell short in a hard-fought contest, ultimately missing out on a podium finish in his maiden Olympic appearance.
In an interaction with Narendra Modi, Sen said that his coach Prakash didn't give his phone until the conclusion of Paris Olympics. He added that it was heartbreaking for him to have not won an Olympic medal despite coming so close.
"During matches Prakash Sir took away my phone and told me till the matches are over, you won't get your phone. But after that I got to know the support I got." Lakshya Sen said.
"But, I want to say that Paris Olympics was a good learning experience for me. Also, it was heartbreaking that I missed out even after coming so close." he added.
Lakshya Sen kicked off his maiden Olympic appearance with a win over Kevin Cordon of Guatemela in the first round of the group stage. However, Lakshya Sen's win against Cordon was deleted as the Guatemelan shuttler withdrew from the Games due to elbow.
Despite the tough blow, the 22-year-old won the next two games against Julien Carragi and Jonathan Christie to qualify for the pre-quarters, where he defeated his Indian compatriot HS Prannoy. In the quarterfinals, sen defeated Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei in three sets and qualified for the semifinal.
The Almora-born shuttler remained the only medal hope for India after PV Sindhu, the doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and HS Prannoy were knocked out of the Games.
