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GoBadminton File

Sports career has been extended to 35 years, thanks to AI: Gopichand at WCIT

By: Swetha
Date: 21 Feb, 2018
Image Courtesy: GoBadminton File

Technology was far behind, lately, to the human proficiency in terms of sports analysis, as told by the National chief coach Pullela Gopichand at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT), greeting 3,000 IT professionals, innovators, and entrepreneurs on Tuesday.


On the second day of the WCIT, Artificial Intelligence was the paramount topic. “Yet, AI is nowhere near the human quotient,” Gopi added, “Sports career used to end at maximum of 27 years, earlier. Now it has been extended to 35 years, which is by the influence of technology in sports, medicine, and nutrition,” answering to the questions raised by Keshav Murugesh, CEO of WNS Global Services in the session titled Sports and Technology.


Gopichand, an ardent Sri Aurobindo follower and Yoga enthusiast, urged sportspersons to maintain tranquility during the losing moments. “Scrutinizing the loss of my students was never me, despite their hard work. It is ok to lose,” said Gopi followed by the round of applause.


“I stopped competing with others and started competing with myself after I underwent three surgeries.Since then I kept on winning,” observed Gopi, who narrowly missed Olympic due to illness.


In the rapid fire round, the All England champion told that he would choose to be father over a coach, any day.


“Becoming the renowned Olympian is not the easy business. But a sportsman’s life is wonderful. I would ask my children to try badminton if they had the inclination, he added.


Gopichand who chose Math, Physics, and Chemistry in intermediate, said, “I failed the final engineering examination because of which I got the time to train myself in badminton. As my brother enrolled for IIT, it was tough time for me and my mother forwarded my resume to many companies.”


The national coach said that the talent hunt is not going in a correct way. “Talent identification is the biggest mistake we do. In 1985 I did not qualify in national talent search. Recruiters should accept that they could be wrong in their approach if they cannot identify talent. One should realise that people are talented normally,” he said.


“I’m happy with the way my things are,” said Gopi on asking the alternate element he would chose other than badminton.



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