For Satwik-Chirag, Olympic loss is a good excuse to improve; but after rest, recharge & regrouping

There is inspiration everywhere in sport to bounce back from rock bottom. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were expected to play the Olympic finals this Sunday, but returned with not even a shot at the podium. The disappointment is all too raw, and the kindest thing afforded to them will be to not think about the future for some time. To allow the hurt to subside, soak up the stray verbal stabs from assorted sudden-experts, and then to eventually let the pain of missing out stew, and check if it’s worth letting it bubble into inspiration.

Their Tokyo failure set them up for three years of incredible improvement. It might not have been good enough to win an Olympic medal, but there was remarkable consistency in chasing excellence. Satwik-Chirag achieved what very few other Olympic legends can claim to have – they kept badminton fans hooked to the sport for the period in between two Games. Getting millions to watch the sport even without the big occasion on the circuit, has been the highlight of the Tokyo-to-Paris turnaround.

In the next cycle, they can eschew the mad treadmill of the Tour and focus on the big medal, not repeating the mistake of choosing the circuit over legacy Olympic medals.

Paris: India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty with coach Mathias Boe after their men’s doubles quarterfinal badminton match against Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. Indian duo lost the match. (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary

Their Paris failure is bound to leave a sense of incompleteness, and possibly a stab at another Games, even if LA is way too far to even think ahead. Satwik will be 28, Chirag 31. But in a sport and event where India never had any history, Satwik-Chirag made a good run in pursuit of a medal, though their quarters loss will be lambasted as a failure for the Top 3 pair. They only need look back at what criticism PV Sindhu copped after two World Championship silvers. It’s how every second-place non-championship pushed her to improve her game, that holds much to learn from.

Silvers, and moreover no-medals, carry with them the need to repair, restock, replenish and reconsider aspects of the game that let you down. Some weaknesses got glaring at Paris: their receiving of wobbley, wicked serves, learning the escape-route from flat games they get dragged into, and deciphering the low altitude fast game that’s troubled them the last eight months. Being vulnerable at the Olympics on the first four strokes, wasn’t exactly a secret. Not for opponents at any rate, as Malaysians exploited a very old weakness. When starved off their attack, 3 teams out of 4 can bring Indian defense under pressure.

A proper postmortem will tell you Indians should’ve seen this coming in the three Tour finals they lost. Against the Chinese especially, as well as the Danes at last year’s World Championships. Fitness concerns might’ve pulled them back from an all-out attack, but ultimately it was Aaron Chia’s guiles and Malaysian deep tactical sense, that poked at their medal chances. The scope of improvement is immense, and it will keep drawing boards busy in coming years till they nail a World title.

Knowing their skill-set was incomplete can be a humbling realisation. But once more, they needn’t look further than Sindhu to put their heads down and chip away at the inadequacies.

India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty play against Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto during their men’s doubles badminton group stage match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Perhaps the biggest inspiration can be riffed from defending champs, Taiwanese Wang Chi-Lin and Lee Yang, both 28 now, and making their second Olympics final. They were nowhere on the circuit, barely chasing rankings or tournament victories post Tokyo. They nursed injuries, stayed under the radar till qualification period fetched up, and ran up a good campaign just when needed.

Wirh Mathias Boe stepping away, Satwik and Chirag will need to recalibrate their goals, refresh their ambition, find newer avenues and chew fresher brains of experts to mount a fresh challenge going ahead. Not winning keeps the hunger alive – there’s still a World title to be won, and the Chinese and Malaysians to be beaten consistently, should they choose to stick around. But all that can wait, and wait till the injuries are mended.

There are bigger coaches out there internationally, with wider expanses of knowledge, as India tries to make a combined ascent at the medal next cycle in all three categories – men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Being the sole hopes in doubles, can dump pressure on them and hyper-focussing on just one player or pairing, can prove counterproductive. If India have to do well at doubles, it will need a multi-pronged focus on several pairs and sparring to get better. It will need full-time coaches dedicated to the whole squad.

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Above everything else, Satwik-Chirag will need to believe they can still win the World Championships despite this setback. For they are easily India’s finest badminton talents whose matches are worth investing time in to watch on television or streams. Medals or no medal.

On Happy Friendship Day, Satwik-Chirag can just be glad that their bond survived two heart breaking Olympic failures. They know they aren’t a bad pairing at all. They know they have each other’s backs. Paris didn’t give them medals, but it could be the beginning of a beautiful new old friendship, this one between the only two people in this story who have to live down a loss at the Olympics. Their biggest inspiration is how they themselves have bounced back before.

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