Aparna Popat

Some Lesser Known Facts About Aparna Popat

• Aparna started playing badminton at the age of 8 in the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai.

• When Aparna’s coach Anil Pradhan saw her in training, he asked her parents to let him train her in Badminton. He said,
  

  Give me this girl and I will put her on the map of Indian badminton”

• Aparna was interested in playing lawn tennis before coming into badminton.

• At 11, Aparna won the National Under-12 Badminton Championship held at Bangalore in 1989.

  

• Aparna represented India at the World Junior Championship when she was in the 9th standard.

• Arpana won the National title nine times in a row from 1997 to 2006, equalling the record of her mentor Prakash Padukone. She also broke the record of Madhumita Bisht, who won the National Senior Championship title consecutively seven times from 1984 to 1990. Arpana remained undefeated in the national championships till her retirement.

• Aparna was the only Indian among the 17 participants from around the globe selected for the Global Sports Mentoring Programme in 2012, an initiative promoted by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and ESPN to empower women and girls through sport.

• In 1994, after completing the 10th standard, Aparna moved to Bangalore at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy and trained there for the next six years.

  

• At 16, she was given a scholarship by Air India, She played for the Indian Oil when she turned 18.

• Aparna won her first Senior National title in 1997 at Hyderabad, defeating the defending champion Manjusha in straight games.

• Aparna was a vegetarian but had to switch to a non-vegetarian diet for sporting reasons.

• In her badminton career, Aparna has participated in 2 Olympic Games tournaments, 1 Asian Games tournament, won a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in 1996 and 4 medals in 3 Commonwealth Games matches.

• At the Commonwealth Games held in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, she got a chance to meet Queen Elizabeth II.

  

• In 2001, Aparna won a gold medal at the Asian Satellite Tournament.

• Aparna won the IBF International women’s singles championship in 1998 (Sri Lanka International, French International, India International), 2001 (India International), and 2003 (India Satellite). She ended as runner-up in the competition in 1999, 2002, and 2005.

• In 2006, after 17 years of professional badminton, Arpana took retirement from the game due to a wrist injury which remained undiagnosed. She was the No.1 player in the country at the time of her retirement.

• After retiring from Badminton, Aparna worked for the Indian Oil Corporation in Mumbai. She resigned from the company as the Executive Director in 2015.

• Aparna coached the Mumbai Masters team in the first edition of the Premier Badminton League in 2013.

• Aparna has served as the Executive Director of the Olympians Association of India, and as of 2024, she is a member of the General Assembly of the Indian Olympic Association.

• Aparna is the Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer at All Is Well, a fitness app tech startup designed to enhance sports performance.

• Aparna also works at Zomato as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

• Aparna has done commentary with Star Sports for Badminton.