Impossible is nothing

When Parupalli Kashyap takes to the court for the World Badminton Championships beginning August 10, he will epitomise the ability of the human spirit to go beyond the limitations of the body. Five years ago, he was a scrawny, sickly kid with severe breathing problems.

Today Kashyap is world No.33, and one of those who will shoulder the responsibility of India’s challenge in the premier event.

“It used to be very, very bad,” says Kashyap of his childhood years in Bangalore, which is notorious for its pollen and other allergens. “I used to be sick at every tournament. I had to keep taking antibiotics and I would feel ill all the time.”

Kashyap had first enrolled with Mohd Arif’s camp in Hyderabad as an 11-year-old and then Padukone Academy in Bangalore. His father had a transferable job and the family kept moving between cities.
It was only a few months after his family moved back to Hyderabad in May 2004 that the real nature of his condition became apparent — he was diagnosed as an asthmatic after a series of tests.

Having changed his medication, he transformed dramatically. From the short, scrawny kid he grew into a well-muscled teenager whose game took on the attacking contours of his current coach in Hyderabad, Pullela Gopichand.

From 2005 onwards it has been a steady rise for Kashyap. “Before 2005, nobody told me my condition was asthma,” he says. “But once it was diagnosed and I started the right medication, I grew quickly in strength. I could eat well and I got healthy. I’m still asthmatic and I take medication once a day, but I’m fine otherwise.”

Although he had an indifferent 2008 affected by knee injury, his performance shot up this year. Having reached the final of the national championships in February, he went on to reach the finals at three international tournaments — the Smiling Fish International at Thailand in May, the Spanish Open, and the French Open in June, apart from a creditable quarterfinal place at the Asian Championships.

The asthma doesn’t hamper him much on court, although he has to accommodate some extra endurance work.

“Basically, asthmatics have to keep on working on endurance. You can’t build it up and stop working on it for a while, like the others. My endurance goes down if I don’t work on it. So I do endurance workouts even during tournaments, when other players don’t.”

He can take some solace from the fact that one of the greatest players ever, Morten Frost, was asthmatic and used to carry an inhaler on court. Perhaps those who overcome the troubles posed by the condition grow into tougher specimens mentally.

“You tend to be more stubborn,” says TR Balachandran, former coach at the Padukone Academy, an asthmatic himself. “It’s like being strangled by a powerful man. Having known the pits of breath deprivation, a long match does not faze you at all.”