Paris: Mathias Boe, husband and badminton coach who contributed to the success of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, announced his retirement from coaching after the star Indian men’s doubles pair’s exit from the Paris Olympics, prompting his wife and actor Taapsee Pannu to share a fun message.
The Indian badminton pair, popularly known as ‘Sat-Chi’, were knocked out of the men’s doubles event after losing to Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Despite a promising start in the knockout stage, Satwik and Chirag’s hopes of returning to India with an Olympic medal were dashed as they lost 21-13, 14-21 and 16-21.
Boe congratulated Satwiksairaj-Chirag on Instagram on Saturday.
The note read, “I understand this feeling myself too well. Pushing yourself to the limit every day, being in the best shape of your life, and then things don’t go as you expected. I know you guys are disappointed, I know how much you wanted to bring a medal for India, but it couldn’t happen this time. But you have everything to be proud of, how hard you have worked in this Olympic camp, battling injuries, taking injections to reduce pain, it’s dedication, it’s passion and it’s a huge heart. You have won so much in the past years and you are going to win a lot more in the future.”
Later in his post, Bo said his coaching days in the sport were over after spending “too much time in the badminton hall”.
He said, “For me, my coaching days end here, I am not going back to India or anywhere else, at least for now. I have spent too much time in the badminton hall and being a coach is quite stressful too, I am a tired old man. I would like to thank @media.iccsai, Garg Sir and Rakesh Sir, @bai_media, @gosportsvoices for the support over the years. Also a big thank you to all my colleagues in Indian badminton. Thanks for so many good memories and I wish you all the best. Jai Hind.”
Supporting his decision, Taapsee jokingly wrote, “But now you are a married man. You need to take a step back. I have to come home from work everyday and make dinner and clean up. So hurry up, hurry up!”
Under Boi’s coaching, Satwiksairaj-Chirag won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and also a bronze medal at the World Championships.
This year, the popular men’s doubles pair won two Badminton World Federation (BWF) Tour titles, the French Open title in March 2024 and the Thailand Open 2024 in May 2024. They were also the runners-up at the Malaysian Open and India Open.
He was also part of the Indian team that played as defending champions in the Thomas Cup 2024. However, they could not defend the title as they lost 3-1 to eventual champions China in the quarter-finals.
With the number one ranking in the men’s doubles competition, multiple BWF Tour titles, World Championships men’s doubles bronze medal in 2022, gold in the men’s doubles competition at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games next year and silver medals in the mixed team events at both these competitions, Satwiksairaj-Chirag had a huge collection of medals and achievements that claimed them to be major medal contenders, but they could not do so this time.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Taapsee is all set to enthrall fans with upcoming projects ‘Phir Aai Haseen Dillruba’ and ‘Khel Khel Mein’.
