Ishita Kapoor
I think I first started playing badminton because of my older sister. I remember, I was around 5 and a half years old when I first saw my sister playing with her friends. That’s when I really wanted to play, so that I would be able to play against her. I hadn’t really thought about it being such a serious sport for me, I had just started playing for fun. After a few years of just training and playing some games, I started partaking in small-level tournaments. After performing fairly well in those tournaments, I started training harder and harder to hopefully play at even bigger ones. Now I train about 5 to 6 times a week, and eat healthy to maintain my physique. Of course, everyone who plays a sport faces some challenges, but I would say that the biggest ones for me are injuries, or just self-doubt. But I try to remind myself that I can win, and how starting at a young age gave me an upper-hand. I would say that my biggest inspiration would be my teammates, because I get to see them show up to training every day and see how resilient they are. I always look up to them in terms of their hard-work and constant determination.