Blog: What went into making Saina Nehwal an Olympic champ

Pullela Gopichand, the coach and mentor of badminton player Saina Nehwal, describes how he prepared Saina for the big tournament. This is his blog, as told to NDTV's Amit Chaturvedi.

Overall, it has been a very fulfilling and satisfying experience, both for me and Saina. For me, it was a big achievement because I produced an international-level player and for Saina too, this win meant a lot because when I started training her a year back, she was very low on confidence.

As many as 11 different players had defeated her, so it was an uphill battle to take her out of that state and prepare her mentally for such a big competition.

We started our preparations from October last year. The first thing I wanted for Saina was some big wins. And we got our chance at the Indonesia Super Series where she reached the finals. Then came the Malaysia Open in January. Her performance in these tournaments helped her gain confidence.

We kept on working and in June this year, Saina won the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold title. It was a big win, a much needed booster ahead of the Olympics. These wins kept her in high spirits and we pushed ourselves to the maximum. We trained really hard because it was really important that she stayed fit - both mentally and physically. We used to train for six hours a day. Saina really wanted to win and she did that.

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During the preparations and preceding to the tournament, Saina ensured she did not miss out on any practice sessions. She would not attend a press conference or go for any endorsement deal, it was just practice for her.

It's Saina's victory but it feels like I have won it. As a player, some of your dreams remain unfulfilled but through Saina I've been able to fulfill that.

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I really feel it is a big achievement because of the challenges we faced at each step, including financial problems. And then there were these remarks from other players about Saina's form, her level of preparation, questions being raised about her victory. But all this couldn't stop us. We took it in our stride and achieved this.

However, the victory was a sort of anti-climax, because her final match had to stop abruptly. So it was calm after she was announced the winner. The feeling sunk in a little later.

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But our homecoming has been wonderful. We have been received very warmly at all the places. I am very happy because it was not only my dream, but that of the every member of our academy. And my family members too are very happy that we were able to achieve this.

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