On August 13, 2008, two days after shooter Abhinav Bindra won India’s first ever individual Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games, an 18-year-old Indian shuttler, Saina Nehwal, was “disgusted with myself”. She had just lost to Indonesian player Maria Kristin Yulianti in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles badminton event. It was the first time ever that an Indian – man or woman – had reached so far, but it was no consolation for the teenager from Hyderabad as she lost in three sets.

It was a brilliant game of badminton, with both players going past 21 points in the first set, before Nehwal clinched it 28-26. Yulianti came back to take the second set 21-14, before Nehwal raced to a 11-3 lead in the decider. She was within touching distance of a semi-final berth, before exhaustion and inexperience crept in and she lost it 21-15. “I was disappointed, of course,” Nehwal wrote in her autobiography Playing to Win. “I thought I could have won it and it had just slipped away from me.”

As the rest of the country was still celebrating Bindra’s victory, which was a watershed moment in Indian sport, Nehwal could barely sleep that night. “I was extremely disappointed that night and didn’t know if I could ever come close to that achievement again,” she wrote in My Olympic Journey: 50 of India's Leading Sportspersons on the Biggest Test of Their Career, compiled by Digvijay Singh Deo and Amit Bose. Her coach P Gopichand picked her up and helped her deal with the disappointment, before discussing what went wrong and deciding to make up for it at London 2012. Nehwal was up at 5 am the following morning for practice.

Road to London

Between Beijing 2008 and London 2012, Nehwal won her first Super Series title (and many more), the gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and was also awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, which is India’s highest sporting honour. She had also transformed the landscape of Indian badminton, inspiring many a young girl and boy to take up the sport. As the Olympics approached, India expected a gold from the then 22-year-old.

However, two months before the London Olympics began, she caught a viral fever, which severely affected her strength and fitness conditioning. However, she did not let it affect her training and continued to practice as intensely as she was earlier. This included practice sessions “with two or three players across the net, exercises that were designed to improve reflexes and speed”. When she reached London, her schedule comprised two and a half hours in the gymnasium and three hours each of on-court practice and outdoor training. “I was gunning for gold this time and feeling quite upbeat.”

Nehwal sailed through to the quarter-finals again, and this time she was not letting up. She beat Tine Baun in straight sets to enter the last-four. Up against her in the semi-finals was the world champion, China’s Wang Yihan. Nehwal was still confident against her superior opponent, but unfortunately for the Indian, “the after-effects of the viral fever took their full toll”. She wasn’t moving well during the game and her stamina had been affected. it didn’t take Yihan long to realise this as she imposed herself onto the game and took it in straight sets.

Disappointed yet again, but Nehwal still had one more game to come back with at least a medal, even if it was not gold. In the bronze medal playoff a day later, Nehwal squared off against another Chinese, Wang Xin, who was the world No 2 and had beaten her on four of the last six occasions they had faced each other. The two played a fiercely contested first set, which Xin took 21-18 but not before she took some time out in between to treat a knee injury.

However, as the second set began, it was clear that Xin was struggling with her fitness and she eventually forfeited the match, handing the bronze to Nehwal. It was definitely not how she had imagined winning an Olympic medal and was kind of an anti-climax, but it could still take nothing away from the fact that she was India’s first shuttler to do so.

Chasing history...and gold

Between London 2012 and Rio de Janiero 2016, Nehwal became the first Indian woman to be a world No 1 in badminton. That was in April 2015 and she is currently ranked fifth in the world as she heads to Rio for her third Olympic Games. She has been in good form this year, winning her second Australian Open title after beating two former world champions, Ratchanok Intanon and Wang Yihan.

It was a much needed win for Nehwal, who had failed to reach a Super Series final since November 2015 and was also returning from an Achilles injury. “The victory in Australia came at just the right time,” the now 26-year-old told PTI. “I was really looking forward for some change and nothing boosts confidence like winning. I needed a win to keep believing that I am on the right track.” Asked how confident she was ahead of Rio 2016, she said, “I feel that on the day that I am 100% fit, I have the potential to defeat anyone.”

Nehwal is better equipped this time to win a medal in Rio than she was in London 2012, former All England champion Prakash Padukone told Reuters. “I think she plays a lot more at the net now. Earlier her game was more or less predictable. She had a few strokes, she used to keep playing them and there were not many variations. Now she has developed a lot more strokes, specially at the net. She is much more confident and that has made a big difference,” he added.

At 26 and at the top of her game, or thereabouts, Rio 2016 presents the best, and possibly last, opportunity for Nehwal to bag that elusive Olympic gold medal. She will be 30 by the time the 2020 Olympics come by and perhaps be past her prime. Nehwal is part of a strong Indian badminton contingent at the Games, along with PV Sindhu (women's singles and world No 10), Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa (women's doubles), Kidambi Srikanth (men's singles), and Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy (men's doubles).

Will this be India's year?