Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu hasn’t been at her best of late but the Indian badminton player is still comfortably placed in her bid to make the cut for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
PV Sindhu, the world No. 10 in the latest women’s singles badminton rankings, is currently ninth in the Race to Paris Ranking List for women’s singles.
What does PV Sindhu need to do to secure a place at Paris 2024
Unlike the Badminton World Federation world rankings, which takes into account performances from the preceding 52 weeks, the Race to Paris Ranking List only considers performances from the designated qualifying window, between May 1, 2023, and April 28, 2024, into account.
Only results from the competitions listed below, held during the qualifying window, will count for Race to Paris ranking points:
Thomas & Uber Cup
Sudirman Cup
World Championships
Grade 2 BWF tour tournaments – Levels 1 to 6
Grade 3 BWF Continental tour tournaments – International Challenge, International Series & Future Series
Continental Championships (individual and team)
Continental Multi sports games – Pan American Games, European Games, and African Games (if sanctioned during the qualification period)
Any other international event sanctioned by BWF and included in advance and with BWF approval as being part of the World Ranking Lists
The final Race to Paris Ranking List will be published on April 30, 2024 and on the basis of that, 35 women’s singles players will secure quota places for Paris 2024.
These include the Continental Representation Places. In each singles event, it’s mandated that there will be at least two athletes from each of the five BWF Continental Confederations – Asia, Europe, Africa, Pan America and Oceania – provided the player is ranked 250 or better in the final BWF Race to Paris Ranking list as of April 30.
Meanwhile, the women’s singles event at Paris 2024 will be a 38-player affair. Host nation France will be granted one automatic quota while two more will be distributed through the Universality places, which only NOCs who have had limited participation in the sport at the Summer Games in the past can apply for.
Making the cut through the Race to Paris Ranking List, hence, will be the best bet for PV Sindhu to ensure her third participation at the Summer Games. She won the silver medal at Rio 2016 and clinched a bronze at Tokyo 2020.
However, there are certain restrictions in place. A National Olympic Committee can only field a maximum of two players in the women’s singles badminton event at Paris 2024 and can only avail both quotas provided two or more players from that NOC are ranked in the top 16 of the Paris Ranking List as of April 30, 2024. Otherwise, the NOC gets just one quota place.
At the time of writing, PV Sindhu is the only Indian player in the top 16 of the women’s singles Race to Paris Ranking List. Aakarshi Kashyap, the second-best Indian women’s singles player in the list, is ranked 33rd.
As things stand, India can field just one athlete in the women’s singles badminton event at Paris 2024.
Now, while it’s the athletes who secure the Olympic quotas, the berths essentially belong to their respective NOCs. This means that NOCs can opt to decline an athlete’s acquired quota place in the first allocation phase, which will pass on the berth to the next eligible player during the reallocation phase.
However, in PV Sindhu’s case, it’s a highly-unlikely scenario if she’s fit as the former world champion is, by far, India’s best bet in women’s singles.
Here’s how the Race to Paris badminton rankings for women’s singles currently stands.
Race to Paris badminton rankings for women’s singles
2023-10-26 14:57:00
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