Cricket continues to dominate Indian sporting news in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown which has brought all sporting activity in India to a standstill. However, badminton ace PV Sindhu managed to break the monotony of cricket related news and making it to the Forbes List of Highest-Paid Female Athletes.
PV Sindhu Ranked 13th With $5.5M In 2019
The Forbes List of Highest-Paid Female Athletes is a prestigious list that focuses on the best female athletes in the world. It is indeed a great honour for PV Sindhu to make the list as it not only brings her recognition for her accomplishments but also encourages other young women in the country to take up sport as a profession.
Most Indian women are not encouraged to play sport for a living because it can be hard to earn a living. Those women who are encouraged to play sport are pushed into cricket because it is clearly the most lucrative sport to earn a living in India. However, PV Sindhu has defied the status quo and showed that it is possible to carve a name for yourself and make millions of dollars provided you work at becoming the very best in the world.
Sindhu admitted that she was happy to see her name on the list alongside some of the other female sporting superstars in the world. She said making the list will only motivate her to work harder towards her goal and will not distract her in anyway.
More Interested In Medals Than Money
The 25 year old badminton ace who comes from Hyderabad has won 15 career titles so far and has made it to number 2 on the rankings back in 2017. She has both the talent and good looks to pull in some great sponsorship deals that have helped her secure some lucrative financial endorsements. She hogged the spotlight after winning medals at the 2019 BWF World Championship and the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals.
Sindhu comes from a family which has a strong athletic background. Her dad PV Ramanna was an accomplished volleyball player who was part of the Indian volleyball team that won the bronze medal at the 1986 Asian Games. Mr. Sindhu also received the prestigious Arjuna Award in 2000 and has been by PV Sindhu’s side to guide her through her sporting journey and helped her handle both the fame and fortune.
His guidance has paid off well as PV Sindhu said that as much as she appreciated making the Forbes List of Highest-Paid Female Athletes, her focus was not on making more money but on winning more medals for India. She displayed a lot of maturity when she said that if she continued to win more medals, the money would come as well.
Her answers pleased her dad as he said that one of the values that he instilled in her growing up was to never forget where she came from and to remember the past. Mr. Sindhu said that by instilling this in her, it has helped her remain grounded and stay true to herself.
Quarantine Hard On PV Sindhu
PV Sindhu has not played professional badminton since March 2020 when India decided to go into lockdown mode. Her last game was during the quarter-finals at the All England Open Badminton Championship which she lost.
She has not been able to practice and train which has been hard on her mentally and physically. She remains hopeful that the lockdown will soon be lifted and allow her to go back to training as one of her main goals is to play at the Tokyo Olympic Games and see if she can win gold for India.
