Park Tae-Sang, the cool former Korean shuttler behind PV Sindhu’s Mission Olympics
Park Tae-Sang is among the most recognisable coaches in badminton and was on PV Sindhu’s courtside during her bronze medal win at the Tokyo Olympics.
Badminton
When PV Sindhu won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, there was one person who seemed even more elated than her - Park Tae-Sang.
Having taken up the role of PV Sindhu's coach in late 2019, the South Korean was a constant presence in the Indian badminton ace’s courtside before he stepped down from the post in February 2023. In the four-year stint, Park Tae-Sang guided PV Sindhu to several medals, including the bronze at Tokyo 2020.
While he is now best-known for being the world champion’s coach, Park Tae-Sang is also a former badminton player himself, having achieved some notable successes in his playing career.
Park Tae-Sang, the badminton player
Park Tae-Sang was born on June 20, 1979, in Busan and made his international badminton debut in 1997, when he was 18.
The shuttler was a regular part of the South Korean national badminton team and won his first medal with them, a bronze at the 1999 Sudirman Cup.
Park Tae-Sang played only one match in that campaign, losing to legendary Dane Peter Gade in the group stages. South Korea lost to eventual champions China in the semis to end up with bronze.
A few months later, Park Tae-Sang won two of his four matches as South Korea clinched another bronze medal at the 1999 Badminton Asia Cup.
At the 2002 Asian Games, Park Tae-Sang was part of the gold-medal winning South Korea men’s team, although he did not play in the tournament.
Park Tae-Sang’s best individual achievement came at the 2004 Asian championships. The South Korean beat Anuar Musafirov, Shoji Sato, Yu Chen and Young Soo Jang to make the semi-finals.
He then fell to silver-medallist Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in the last four and finished with the bronze medal.
Park Tae-Sang is also an Olympian. He played men’s singles for South Korea at the 2004 Athens Olympics, making it to the quarter-finals after beating India’s Abhinn Shyam Gupta and world championships silver-medallist Bao Chunlai.
However, Sony Dwi Kuncoro again proved too big a hurdle to cross for Park Tae-Sang as the Korean lost in the quarter-finals. Sony Dwi Kuncoro went on to win the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.
Park Tae-Sang went on to win bronze with South Korea at the 2007 Sudirman Cup, though he did not play a single match. He continued playing for three more years before eventually retiring in 2010, at the age of 31.
On the BWF circuit, runners-up finishes at the 2003 Korea Open and 2010 Australian Open were Park Tae-Sang’s best moments.
Park Tae-Sang: The badminton coach
His love for badminton meant that Park Tae-Sang could not stay away from the sport for too long as he soon took up coaching.
Park Tae-Sang coached the South Korean national team for five years, from 2013 to 2018. He was then brought in to coach the Indian team in 2019.
Initially serving as the men’s singles coach, Park Tae-Sang became PV Sindhu’s coach after the world championships in 2019 as the star’s former coach, Kim Ji hyun, left the role.
For the next four years, the South Korean struck up a fruitful partnership with PV Sindhu.
Over these years, Park Tae-Sang also became a darling of the Indian badminton fans because of his expressive presence in the courtside during PV Sindhu's matches. The video of his exhilaration after PV Sindhu won bronze at Tokyo 2020 even went viral on social media.
It was a historic second Olympic medal for PV Sindhu - making her the first Indian woman and only the second Indian athlete to win multiple Olympic medals in individual events. She won a silver at Rio 2016.
It was also the first time that Park Tae-Sang coached a player to an Olympic medal, making it a special event for him.
PV Sindhu also won the gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, something which was missing from her cabinet, under the stewardship of Park Tae-Sang. The same year also saw PV Sindhu win three BWF World Tour titles - the Syed Modi International, Swiss Open and Singapore Open - making it her most productive year in terms of titles won.
The Korean coach even learnt a phrase or two in Hindi, uttering the words ‘aaram se’ (which roughly translates to ‘keep calm’) during the CWG run.
“During games I only say aaram se in Hindi since Tokyo. Sindhu sometimes gets upset when she drops back-to-back points against opponents. The game is still not over, but she gets upset.
“So, in those times, I have always said, 'Sindhu, please. Aaram se. The match is still not finished. You can do it. The opponent will also give you a chance in the game. You wait. Don't get upset,” Park Tae-Sang has been quoted as saying.
He also worked hard on PV Sindhu’s defensive skills, which visibly improved at Tokyo 2020.
Park Tae-Sang, however, stepped down as PV Sindhu's coach in February 2023.