First Indian woman to win a Silver at the Olympics: PV Sindhu

   Pusarla  Venkata Sindhu is an Indian Badminton player. She became the first Indian woman to win a silver at the Olympics. 

P.V.Sindhu won Gold medal at Badminton World Championships

Sindu was born on 5 July 1995 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India to P.V. Ramana and P.Vijaya. Both her parents have been national level volleyball players. she was good at studies at her school time. she started playing badminton when she was just 8 and a half year old. she played it for enjoyment but soon she realised that she wanted to make her career in it. she started her coaching at the Indian Railway Institute in Secunderabad to learn the basics of badminton and then she joined Pullela Gopichand's badminton academy to enhance her skills.

Sindhu came to international attention when she broke into the top 20 of the BWF World Ranking in September 2012 at the age of just 17.

She finished as runner-up in the 2010 Iran Fajr International Badminton Challenge and reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 Junior World Badminton Championships in Mexico. 

She bagged her first Grand Prix win by Grand Prix win by defeating Singapore's Gu Juan. At World Championships in 2013, Sindhu won a bronze medal.

The Arjuna Award, the highest honor for any sportsperson was awarded to P.V. Sindhu in 2013.

In 2014, she competed in Commonwealth Games, she reached the semi-finals after losing to Michelle Li of Canada. She became the first Indian to win back-to back medals in the BWF World Badminton Championships after her bronze medal in 2014 BWF World Championships.

The turning point in sindhu's life was in 2016 when she went on to become the youngest and the first female athlete from India to win a silver medal at Rio Olympics.

The Padma Shri Award, India's 4th highest civilian honor was awarded to her in 2016. 

Under the tutelage of coach Pullela Gopichand, the ace shuttler reached the 6th rank of the Badminton World Federation.

In 2018, she competed at the 2018 commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, winning gold in the mixed event and a silver medal in the women's singles event. she also won her second  silver medal in 2018 World Championships.

The history was made when P.V. become the first Indian to win the season-ending BWF World Tour Finals Tournament in Guangzhou, China.

With earnings of US$8.5 million and $5.5 million respectively, P.V. Sindhu made the Forbes list of highest-paid female athletes in 2018 and 2019. 

In 2020, she was honored with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India.