Indian badminton stalwart Ashwini Ponnappa on Tuesday announced that the 2024 Paris Olympics would be her last one. Ponnappa and her partner Tanisha Crasto bowed out in the group stage in the women’s doubles event after losing all three of their matches.
“This will be my last, but Tanisha has a long way to go,” a tearful Ponnappa was quoted as saying by PTI.
“It takes a toll emotionally and mentally, I can’t go through this again. It is not easy, you can take all these if you are a little younger. Having played for so long, I can’t take it anymore," she said.
Paris 2024 was Ponnappa’s third Olympic Games. She had competed at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Games with former partner Jwala Gutta. However, the pair could not proceed to the knockout stages in either edition.
“We wanted to get a win today. As much as we would have liked the outcome to be different and better, the biggest takeaway I and Tanisha had is we had quite a journey, getting to in the Olympics. It has not been easy,” said Ponnappa.
Ponnappa and Crasto lost their first match in Paris 21-18, 21-10 to South Korean’s Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong. They lost their second match to Japanese fourth seeds Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida 21-11, 21-12 before losing 21-15, 21-10 to Australia’s Angela Yu and Setyana Mapasa.
