Karnika’s comeback brings medals, hope

Bengaluru

At this time last year, Karnika Sree was cursing her fate as she had suffered injuries that had kept her from the brilliant performances of hers which had brought her so many medals since she was playing in the Under-13 category. “I had meniscus, ACL and patella. All three I had. That was really hard for me to recover. In 2023, November, it happened. I still have the pain, but to com pletely recover and start fully, it took me a year and a half. I keep training again. If I do a bit over-training, I get pain,” Karnika said.

An extremely promising player in the junior category, she had become somewhat consumed by the sport and the pressure of her potential had got to her by the time she had the injury. “In under 13, I was India No. 1 in women’s doubles. And then under 15, I was India No. 1. Under 17 and under 19, my perfor mance had gone completely low. During my under-19, I had that pressure. Not my coaches, but I had pressure telling me I have to prove myself. But I was not able to at all. I am a per son who enjoys whatever I do.

But during my under-19 time, I started taking badminton as a very big pressure. I worked hard. I couldn’t do anything. I started regretting more. Even though I trained hard, I did everything consistently. But still, I regretted. I was like, I need to do more. I started blaming myself. One year, almost. But from the last six months, I had a mindset of, don’t expect any thing, just enjoy the game,” she said. After shifting academies to Aspire academy and recover ing, she has won medals in every competition she has played in, all while expecting the least from herself and her doubles partner Aadya Variyath. “We knew it would work out. But I didn’t expect to get such results.

She was traveling for different reasons. We were not able to practice together also. And then, we just went to the tournament. We didn’t expect the result, but we got it. We did it. And also, this is my first medal. First two tournaments, medal after the injury. My last medal was in 2023,” she recalled. Now, she feels that the sky’s the limit for her. While she had not planned on her return be ing so successful, now in the senior category, she will have to sit down and plan the rest of the year and she feels that internationals and even bigger stages await her.

“I want to play Olympics. I want to get a medal in the Olympics. If I am not able to do it in 2028, I will get a med al in the next one. Until then, I will work hard and give my best. I want to make my nation proud. But only after I came to the academy, I felt my training sessions were helping me push more. I could see the difference,” she said.