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Paris<\/strong>: Indian badminton icon Ashwini Ponnappa was visibly emotional after she departed from the Paris 2024 Games, announcing it as her final Olympic appearance following a third consecutive defeat in the women\u2019s doubles with partner Tanisha Crasto.<\/p>\n They concluded their Group C matches with a loss to Australia\u2019s Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu, scoring 15-21, 10-21, which ended their Olympic journey.<\/p>\n Ashwini, at 34 and in her third Olympic appearance, confirmed her retirement from the Games when questioned about her plans for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. \u201cEmotionally and mentally, it\u2019s demanding; I cannot endure this again. It\u2019s more manageable when you\u2019re younger. After such a long career, it\u2019s too much for me,\u201d she expressed, fighting back tears.<\/p>\n Ashwini, who clinched her first national title in 2001, created a legendary women\u2019s doubles team with Jwala Gutta, active until 2017. Together, they secured multiple international accolades, including gold at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, and bronze at both the Uber Cup (2014 and 2016) and the Asian Championships (2014). Their crowning achievement was in 2011 when they became the first Indian duo to earn a World Championships medal, securing a bronze. The Jwala-Ashwini pair was a constant presence in the world\u2019s top 20 rankings, peaking at 10th.<\/p>\n The duo participated in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics but did not advance past the early rounds. \u201cWe aimed for a victory today. Despite our aspirations for a better result, the most valuable aspect for Tanisha and me has been our Olympic journey, which was challenging,\u201d Ashwini stated.<\/p>\n Tanisha, equally moved, shared her sentiments. \u201cAshwini has been an incredible pillar of support. We aspired for a more favourable outcome and to make our country proud. Her encouragement was unwavering,\u201d she acknowledged.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [ad_2] [ad_1] Paris: Indian badminton icon Ashwini Ponnappa was visibly emotional after she departed from the Paris 2024 Games, announcing it as her final Olympic appearance following a third consecutive defeat in the women\u2019s doubles with partner Tanisha Crasto. They concluded their Group C matches with a loss to Australia\u2019s Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu, scoring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/1722408407_OIP-63.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37738,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37736\/revisions\/37738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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