India’s young badminton sensation Lakshya Sen had a memorable campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, the 23-year-old couldn’t win a medal but awestruck everyone with his unreal skills on the badminton court. Lakshya lost the bronze medal against Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia. He was recently invited on the Ranveer Allahbadia podcast on YouTube where he shared his Olympics experience.
Sen has a great portfolio in his young badminton career. He ended up winning the silver medal in the 2022 Commonwealth games in Birmingham and has registered 245 wins in his career so far. He is already being looked at as next badminton star of India. On the podcast, the rising shuttler revealed that he wants emulate India’s cricketing star Virat Kohli in badminton.
“I want to be the Virat Kohli of Indian badminton in the coming years – he has done a lot for Indian cricket,” Lakshay Sen said on the Ranveer Allahbadia’s podcast on YouTube.
“Virat Kohli is one of the biggest sporting icons in India. I’m his fan, especially for his mentality and aggression” he further added.
It was heartbreaking: Lakshya Sen on losing Olympic medal
On the podcast, the Almora-born shuttler also opened about his thoughts after he failed to win the medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. He had a dominant run throughout the tournament but failed to continue his momentum in the semi-final where he lost against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen despite taking lead. After that, Sen went on to lose the bronze medal against Lee Zii Jia.
“When I started Olympics qualification, I had good four-five tournaments. I won the Canada Open, I went into the semi finals of US Open and Japan Open but after that there was a point where I suffered seven straight first round exits. And by January, I was under a lot of pressure. I was 19-20 in the ranking and I needed to be in top 16 just to qualify,” the 23-year-old shuttler said in a podcast.
“Everyone was under pressure, but I really enjoyed the whole thing. Even when things were not going well, I was always hopeful that I will make a comeback. To finish fourth from that point has been a wonderful journey but a little bit heartbreaking in the end,” he added.