'I don't court controversies, I only state facts' : Jwala Gutta

Surat: "I don't court controversies, but when I state facts, which are hard to digest for male-dominated authorities, they call them squabble," said Jwala Gutta, 32-year-old Indian badminton player, who has qualified for Olympic Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro. In an exclusive talk to the TOI here on Friday, Jwala, who has been a national champion for 14 times till 2013 and is now a doubles specialist, said in a male-dominated world it is difficult for the authorities, who are mostly men, to digest the fact that a woman is stating facts to them.
Jwala, who has been playing in international circuit for more than 15 years now, was in the city to inaugurate a school sports campus. She said her and other badminton players' preparations for the Olympic Games are going on well and that they all aim to win medals for the country. She said she is happy at having a specialist doubles coach. "Unlike badminton playing major nations of the world, we never had a specialist doubles coach and so the discipline remained neglected," Jwala said, who is consistently ranked in top 20 pairs of the world in women's doubles and mixed doubles.
"The attitude of our association and authorities towards doubles was rather pathetic in the past. We used to send one pair to an international event. We never prepared for doubles as we never took it seriously. We are now getting personal attention and expertise ever since the appointment of Kim Han Her as our doubles coach. Aswini and me will definitely benefit," Jwala said.
Kim Han Her was a South Korean and English doubles coach in the past.
Jwala attributes success of Indian badminton at international level, specially in doubles event, to her and partners Bijju and Aswini's hard work. It must be remembered that Jwala rose to world no. 10 in women's doubles with Aswini and world no. 6 partnering Bijju in the year 2015 and 2010, respectively. She together with Aswini won BWF world championship bronze medal in 2011 and silver medals in 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games.
She said, "Patience, self-belief and regularity are three qualities that would take a young player to great heights. Consistency is most important in international level and once you have it, you become a different player."