Parupalli Kashyap

At the 33rd National Games, Kashyap defeated the then National champion Chetan Anand to win a gold medal for Andhra Pradesh.

Parupalli Kashyap (born 8 September 1986) is an Indian badminton player.

A former World No.6, he trains at Gopichand Badminton Academy.

Kashyap felt that his stay in Bangalore during 2000–03 might have aggravated the condition.

Though the diagnosis came as a shock to him and he thought that his playing career was finished, he put in a lot of effort with determination to overcome the problem.

Using appropriate medication, his condition began to improve dramatically.

He continued his training at the Gopichand Academy under Pullela Gopichand, a former All England Open champion.

In 2004, they moved back to Hyderabad.

Soon after, Kashyap was diagnosed with asthma after a few medical tests.

In 2005, Kashyap represented Andhra Pradesh and won the a boys' singles title at the National Junior Open Badminton Championships.

From 2006 onwards, he started to appear at international tournaments.

In that year's Hong Kong Open, he caused an upset by defeating the then world number 19 Przemysław Wacha in the pre-quarterfinals; he lost the next round though.

A few months later, he defeated Wacha again at the Bitburger Open to reach the semifinals.

In 2006, his world ranking improved from outside the 100 to 64.

Coach Gopichand was happy at the win and felt that it was a good sign that Kashyap was winning his important matches against higher-ranked players.

In the same year, Kashyap was chosen to represent India at the 2006 Asian Games.

Between 2006–07, Kashyap won a few national tournaments as well.

In 2009, Kashyap was a semifinalist at the Dutch Open and the 2009 Senior National Badminton Championships.

In the same year, he was the runners-up at the Thailand International, Spanish Open and Toulouse Open.

At the 2009 Singapore Super Series, Kashyap was the semifinalist.

At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he reached the semifinals stage but lost to Rajiv Ouseph of England.

He won the bronze medal against Chetan Anand.

He also played a crucial role in India winning a silver medal in the Team Event of 2010 Commonwealth Games

He also reached the semi-finals at the 2010 Indian Open Grand Prix Gold where he lost out to compatriot Gurusai Datt.

He lost out to Arvind Bhat in the finals of the 75th Senior National Badminton Championship held at Rohtak in 2011.

He was awarded the Arjuna Award by the Government of India in 2012.

He created history by reaching the quarter-finals of men's singles at the 2012 London Olympics, being the first male player from India to do so.

Kashyap reached the semifinal stage of 2012 Djaram Indonesia Open in the men's singles competition, where he eventually lost.

En route to the semifinals, he upset world number 3 Chen Long and world number 16 Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Kashyap surprised one and all by winning all his matches at the group stage, which involved the shocking defeat of Nguyễn Tiến Minh.

In the Pre-quarters he defeated Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka by 21–16, 15–21, 21–14.

In the Quarterfinals, it was disappointment as a dejected looking Kashyap was escorted out of the court after his loss to top seed Lee Chong Wei in straight sets.

In the process, he created history by becoming the only Indian to reach the Quarterfinal stages in the Olympics in Men's Singles.

Kashyap was the Icon Player for the Indian Badminton League team, Banga Beats in the 2013 edition.

At the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in men's singles.

He married fellow badminton player, Saina Nehwal in a private ceremony on 14 December 2018.

Born to Uday Shankar and Subhadra of Guntur, as an 11-year-old, Kashyap Parupalli first enrolled with a training camp conducted by S. M. Arif in Hyderabad, India.

Because his father had a transferable job, their family kept moving frequently.

While in Bangalore, he joined the Padukone Academy.

This achievement led him to 19th rank.