Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal has defended herself against critics on social media, who criticized her for saying that she was unaware of the javelin throw before Neeraj Chopra's Olympic victory. Some of the trolls even called her as the "Kangana Ranaut of Indian sports." However, Saina Nehwal took this as a compliment and praised the actress, calling her beautiful.
Taking to X, the shuttler wrote, “Thanks for the compliment.. Kangana is beautiful…but I had to be perfect in my sport and I proudly achieved world number 1 and Olympic medal in badminton for my country …again I will say this ghar pe bait ke comment karna easy hai and sports khelna difficult. Neeraj is our super star and he made the sport so popular in India.”
While speaking to Shubhankar Mishra on his podcast, the badminton player said, “When Neeraj won, that is when I got to know about athletics has got this game too. You'll gain knowledge only when you see it, right? If you don't see, how will you know? I did not know about javelin throw. Frankly, I didn't know. Because athletics has many sports. I got to know only when the results came, that is when I knew.”
She then added, “I am sure people didn't know about badminton. I did not know who Prakash sir is… It's not that you don't want to know, but you're so busy in your own field, how much time do you get deep into something else. If not you'll have to Google everything non-stop. If you're perfect in your own field, that's more than enough.”
During the same podcast, she also said that cricket is riskier than badminton. However, the ace badminton player does not think people choose sports based on their danger level. She also remarked about handling Jasprit Bumrah's bowling without training. She said it was similar to a cricketer handling a 300kmph badminton smash from her.
“Why should I get killed by facing Bumrah’s ball? I could have played him well if I had played cricket since I was 8 years old. If Bumrah plays badminton with me, he may be unable to handle my 300kmph smash,” the former number 1 said.
