London 2012 bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was heavily criticized for her comments in a podcast during the Paris 2024.

In a podcast, Nehwal confessed that she was unaware of the Men’s Javelin Throw event in athletics until double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra clinched the gold medal at Tokyo 2020. The comments did not go well amongst the fans with several fans dubbing her as the ‘Kangana Ranaut of Indian Sports’ in one of their articles.

“When Neeraj won (the Tokyo gold in 2021), that’s when I got to know there is such an event in athletics,” Saina had said during the podcast.

In response, the two-time Asian Games bronze medallist hit back at the trolls and reminded them of the laurels she brought to the country at the highest level. Additionally, she also said, “ghar pe bait ke comment karna easy hai and sports khelna difficult”. 

“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 superstar and he made the sport so popular in India 🙏,” Nehwal responded.

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… https://t.co/mAjW10X4d1

— Saina Nehwal (@NSaina) August 13, 2024

Nehwal, however, is not new to being targeted by the trolls as she was heavily criticised over her equations on Jasprit Bumrah. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) young batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi had also criticised the ace Indian shuttler following which she responded saying:

“Why would I face Jasprit Bumrah anyways? If I had been playing for 8 years maybe I would have answered Jasprit Bumrah,” Nehwal said in response.

“If Jasprit Bumrah plays badminton with me maybe he won’t be able to take my smash. We should not fight with ourselves in our own country for these things. That’s what I want to say (earlier). Every sport is best in its place. But I want to say, give value to other sports as well. Otherwise, where will we get sporting culture from? And cricket, Bollywood will always be our focus,” she had said.