NEW DELHI: The South Korean badminton coach Park Tae-sang has emerged as a celebrity figure and badminton sports icon in India after her 26-year old badminton trainee Pusarla Venkata Sindhu (P V Sindhu) rose to the limelight after winning the bronze medal in Tokyo Olympics 2020 recently, her consecutive second Olympic medal.
Park Tae-sang who returned to India along with P V Sindhu from Tokyo, was not only invited by the Indian President and Prime Minister, and was among the special guests at the 75th Independence Day event at the Red Fort in New Delhi on August 15, he also has emerged as a darling figure in the Indian and Korean community.
On August 13, a welcome ceremony was held at the Honorary Consulate General of Hyderabad to commemorate the Olympic achievements of the Indian badminton player P V Sindhu, as well as the Korean coach Park Tae-sang.
On this occasion, Cha Jae-ho, Lee Jung-heon, POSCO’s Jang Eung-bin, and Hyundai Engineering’s Kim Sung-hee attended, honorary Consul General of Korea Suresh Chukkapalli and his all family, many Phoenix staffs and British Consulate, gathered during the ceremony that witnessed a K-pop performance also.
Coach Park expressed his gratitude as the most memorable thing he’s ever done while living in India.
After attending the event, coach Park wrote to the Honorary Consul general Suresh Chukkapalli, “Thank you so much for inviting me to a good place today. It was so fun and happy to meet you and your family today. I will visit you again after I come back from Korea.”
On August 15, the flag-raising ceremony was also organized to commemorate Korean Liberation Day and India’s Independence Day, making the occasion a very meaningful event.
Earlier, the Korean Cultural Center in India (KCCI) too congratulated PV Sindhu and her Korean coach Park Tae-sang for winning the bronze medal and becoming the first woman in India to get two Olympic medals.
“Having shed the pain and disappointment of coming up short against Tai-Tzu Ying in the semifinals on Saturday, Sindhu unleashed her aggressive best on the court on Sunday, decimating the challenge of China’s He Bing Jiao 21-13, 21-15 in the bronze medalist playoff. All good wishes and congratulations to our flying lady for winning bronze for India,” said KCCI in a statement.
It further said, “The coach’s celebration had caught the attention of the Indian fans. Park Tae-Sang has been training Sindhu since 2019. Earlier, Sindhu had mentioned how she has improved under the supervision of the South Korean coach and will continue to train under him after the Tokyo Olympics. As a player, Tae-Sang failed to qualify for the semi-final of the 2004 Summer Olympics and, hence, he has an emotional connection to Sindhu’s performance. Kudos to the two Champs!”
