Saina Nehwal

Saina Nehwal is one of India's greatest badminton players and the trailblazer for Indian women in the sport. Born in Hisar, Haryana in 1990 and raised in Hyderabad, she trained at Pullela Gopichand's academy and rose to become the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in badminton — bronze at the London 2012 Olympics — the first Indian woman to reach World No. 1 in the BWF rankings (2015), and India's first Badminton World Championships silver medallist (2015). Her success paved the way for a generation of Indian shuttlers including PV Sindhu, and she has won 24 international titles across BWF World Tour, Superseries, and Grand Prix events, plus a Commonwealth Games gold (2010, 2018). She has received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Shri.