Anupama Upadhyay: India’s rising badminton player on her strengths, weaknesses and health

Anupama Upadhyay was born with a silver spoon of sports genes. Her father was a former cricketer who always wanted his children to pursue sports. Anupama started swimming. She enjoyed it and hoped it would improve her career. But a coach told her she didn’t have the height or build to be a professional swimmer. When she switched to badminton at age 9, another man told her she was “too skinny” to play the racket sport. But here’s a girl who doesn’t let the naysayers dictate the course of her life. To Anupama, “I can!” These cases served as motivation to prove that.

The young and rising 19-year-old shuttler is a former Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Junior No. 1 player. She also won the Indian National Badminton Champion in women’s singles in 2023 and represented India in the 2023 Asian Games. According to the BWF, she is ranked 87th among senior athletes worldwide. Anupama’s eyes are now focused on securing a place in the World Top 50 and playing in the 2026 Commonwealth Games and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Happy that women are jumping, diving and serving on the court at par with men, she is hopeful that a large number of young women will break into the world space of sports around the world.

In this Health Shots She Slays exclusive interview, Anupama speaks candidly about her journey as a teacher, challenges, mental health, physical well-being and goals.

Excerpts from an interview with Anupama Upadhyay

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Q. You didn’t start your journey with badminton. Interestingly, you started with swimming. But when was the first time in your life that you felt sports was your calling?

Anupama Upadhyaya: My father used to play cricket. But I was never interested in cricket. I love to swim and play in the water. My father encouraged me that swimming is a life-saving skill. I was six years old when I started swimming, and I did it for two years. But my coach said, ‘She doesn’t have a good height or build to swim.’ Then dad said ‘ok.. let’s play badminton’. I started training for one hour every day. I was fascinated by the shuttlecocks and I saw my senior players wearing nice skirts and T-shirts. That’s why it’s so exciting to wear those skirts, play like them, and hit the shuttle.

After a year, I was switched to two hours of training. At that time, my senior head coach told my father, ‘She can be a national champion, an Olympic champion…’. Whenever my father used to say, ‘You are playing well, you have good physical strength’, I was also inspired.

Q. Sports has not traditionally been seen as a women’s field. But over the past few years, many amazing women have broken that notion with their success nationally and internationally. What are some of the personal and professional challenges you’ve faced while building your game and name?

Anupama Upadhyaya: Some people used to say to my father, ‘She is too thin, she can’t perform, she is not for sports, you should not make her play this sport, educate her, she may become thinner or have some physical problems.’ But slowly, I built myself up. Earlier, I was a pure vegetarian. I don’t like eggs either. But I started eating eggs and switched to meat because diet is important. I also started going to the gym to work on my strength. After becoming the under-13 national champion in singles, suddenly everyone came and congratulated me. Even the person who told my father that she shouldn’t play this game said, ‘It’s my fault for saying all this.’ But such comments also challenge and make me feel like ‘I have to show him or her that I can do this’.

At the end of the day, whether I’m skinny or fat, you have to tell yourself that I can do this. It’s all about believing in yourself!

Q. So even while gaining that muscle mass, Anupama, are you hesitant about gaining weight? As an athlete, I am sure that your weight and your muscle growth will be taken care of professionally. But have you ever walked that thin line of suspicion that you might be gaining more weight than you need to?

Anupama Upadhyaya: Actually I got a genetic test which showed that I don’t have the body structure to gain a lot of weight. So even if I sometimes eat pastries or chocolates, or eat more, I have a good metabolism and I don’t gain weight. I was happy to be able to eat whatever I wanted every few days!

Q. Let’s talk a little about your diet and fitness. What are some daily wellness habits you follow to keep your health in check?

Anupama Upadhyaya: The first thing is good nutrition. Sometimes my session starts at 5 am, so I wake up early and I have dry fruits, followed by fruits like apples and bananas. Then I had dry fruit laddoos with lots of desi ghee. This is a good protein brownie that keeps me full. I also make sure I drink a lot of water – at least 5-6 liters a day. A few hours after finishing my training session, I have a protein shake followed by a heavy breakfast so that I can sleep well and recover for my next session. Good food and good sleep are important for good performance. Stretching after each session is also beneficial or there may be pain or numbness in the leg.

Q: Anupama, as a women’s health platform, we talk a lot about menstrual health. When it comes to athletes, dealing with periods can get complicated. After all, you can’t always match dates to your matches! How do you manage pain or discomfort?

Anupama Upadhyaya: My nutritionist told me to eat dates every day and said that it would ease my stomach cramps. But during the first couple of days of my period I get back pain or leg cramps. But I got used to it because there was no other option. Some people take period pain meds, but I don’t because I prefer to go natural. Otherwise, you will get addicted to those drugs and it will not be good for your health. I think eating natural fruits or drinking coffee or tea is good to help manage cramps. I also do some training and warm up and I don’t feel that cramp!

Q. Now that you’ve talked about diet and fitness, let’s talk about mental health. Mental health plays a huge role in supporting an athlete throughout their career. The taste of success is very sweet, but the taste of failure is also very instructive. So how have you navigated the ups and downs of your career?

Anupama Upadhyaya: No one likes to lose. That’s why I didn’t watch those matches whenever I lost. One day, my coach (famous badminton coach DK Sen) and my father told me, ‘You always watch matches where you win. It’s great that they motivate you, but it’s also important to watch the matches you lose. Because in that match itself you will know your weakness and opponent’s strength. So now, I started watching my lost matches as well.

My father always motivated me even though I lost some matches badly. I have scores like 21-5. But he used to say, ‘That’s okay, it’s a long journey and it won’t end with this one tournament.’ I was able to build up the confidence that even if I lost, I knew I would come back and come back stronger!

Q. What about your mother? Tell us about her influence in your life.

Anupama Upadhyaya: When I am not playing badminton, she is a working woman. After I started playing badminton professionally, she left her job and started focusing on my career. Nutrition is a very important part of an athlete’s life so she took care of my diet completely. My mom is a vegetarian but she learned all the chicken and mutton recipes for me. She makes the best mutton and her support really helped me. She is happy that she has invested in me and that I have become a good athlete and a strong woman.

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Q. When you became world junior No. 1, what were some of the immediate pressures you felt mentally? Also, because the transition from junior to senior league is tricky, right?

Anupama Upadhyaya: I believe that one of the best and strongest things about me is that I am not stressed. My psychologist says, ‘I have seen many players who feel pressure when there is a big crowd or when they are playing in a country against their home team’. But whether I am a senior player or a junior player, I don’t get pressured. Even if I play with Sindhu Didi (PV Sindhu), I don’t feel pressure. I give credit to my parents for that. They never pressured me for studies or sports.

Q. What areas of development would you like to focus on?

Anupama Upadhyaya: Strength (physical strength). When I see top players from other countries like Yan Se-young (South Korea), they have good strength and ability to maintain court coverage and speed until the third set. I have a deficit there so I have to work with my strength.

Q. For now, what are your current goals?

Anupama Upadhyaya: My long-term goals are Commonwealth Games 2026 and Los Angeles Olympics 2028. My short-term goals are to focus more on the international circuit, bring my ranking to the top 50 and gain more experience. I have never played with 20 or 30 players. So I really want to play with some of them before they retire.

Q. Finally, the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Invest in Women’. What are your thoughts on women empowerment?

Anupama Upadhyaya: I think women should be allowed to do whatever they want. Whether it’s playing a sport or becoming a content creator, let them do whatever they want freely. Let them enjoy their life.