Dipankar Bhattacharjee
Dipankar Bhattacharjee (Assamese: দীপংকৰ ভট্টাচাৰ্য), born 1 February 1972,[1] is a Badminton player from Assam, India. He represented India at many International tournaments including Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics. He was the Indian National Badminton Champion thrice and a runner-up twice. At Barcelona Olympics, he reached the pre-quarters.
Dipankar Bhattacharjee | |
|---|---|
 Dipankar Bhattacharjee | |
| Born | 1 February 1972 |
| Spouse(s) | Dahlia Bhattacharjee (2001–present) |
Pullela Gopichand (former All-England Champion) was ranked number two in Indian Badminton team for major part of Dipankar's reign in the Indian Badminton scene.
Early Starter
Dipankar started playing badminton at a very early age. He was five years old when his father Mr. Iswar Bhattacharjee took him out for Badminton training. His father is his first coach and has been a constant guide and adviser who started local tournaments in the Guwahati Indoor Hall (Kanaklata Indoor Stadium) to attract interests from younger kids and their parents for Badminton.
In addition to his own father, Dipankar was trained by several other good coaches. He had spent few years at Prakash Padukone's Badminton academy at Bangalore and trained with Prakash, Vimal Kumar, Mr. Veedu, etc. He was guided by National and State level Badminton coaches.
The Sportsman
Dipankar had been the star attraction in many tournaments. His style of game attracts spectators naturally. He always played fast-paced, endurance and offense (smash) based game which always energized onlookers. He was praised many a times especially by Mr. Prakash Padukone as India's one of a kind player who had the potential of taking on the champions from other Asian countries like China and Indonesia, and who could match their level of speed, endurance, and reflex.
Role Change
He often got injured while playing and doing his daily training. Lack of proper medical treatment needed for sportsmen in India during his times was another reason he could not heal properly from his injuries.
He retired early from the game in 2004, after playing the last Indian National Championships at Guwahati. Thereafter he concentrated on launching his Badminton Coaching center at Guwahati by the name of "Iswarati Center for Badminton Learning" or ICBL.[2] The project was carried on for almost 3 years in a badminton coaching facility in Guwahati.
He is looking forward to a successful change of role from being a star Badminton player to a successful Sports Entrepreneur. He wants to popularize and commercialize Badminton so that it gets well funded and it attracts talented young kids to make a fruitful profession out of their effort. He is a mentor of Indian Collegiate Athletic Program for the sport of Badminton.
Achievements
- Sub-junior National runner-up - Guwahati in 1980
- Junior National Champion - Madras (Chennai) in 1987[3]
- Senior National Champion - Three times
- Senior National runner-up - Two times
- Represented India in Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta Olympics (1996). He lost in the pre-quarters to Zhao Jianhua, of China, 15–4, 15–12.
- Had been nominated for Arjuna Award couple of times
Hall of Fame
Dipankar's achievements have gone into the record books in the following areas -
- He is the first Olympian from the current state of Assam.
- He is one of the first Badminton players to represent India in Olympics.
- He is the only Senior National Badminton Champion from the North-East India till date (2014).
- He is the only Male Shuttler from India to have made it to Two Olympics (1992 & 1996).
Current status
Dipankar is now working in the capacity of a Chief Manager at Indian Oil Corporation, Western regional office in Mumbai. He married Ms. Dahlia Banerjee of Kolkata in 2001 and has a son with her.
He is an MBA graduate from India's leading B- school, S.P.Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.
References
Sexual abuse of children in sports in India: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=printable&id=10.1371/journal.pone.0205086