How Lakshya Sen clinically and charismatically destroyed Jonatan Christie

Lakshya Sen was too busy getting good at badminton all these years to leaf through French philosophy. The Almora shuttler doesn’t do furrowed brows anyway. At 2-8 down in the opening set against title contender Jonatan Christie in a must-win shoot-off, Sen wasn’t drowning in existential angst of the Olympic variety. When asked of his treacherous path to Paris knockouts that went through Christie, Sen told the media uncomplicatedly, and uncomplainingly, “For me, that was the only way to go forward.”

Jean-Paul Sartre, born just 10 kms away from badminton’s venue Port de la Chapelle of the 18 Arrondissement, who disdained people making excuses, and of whom Sen might know scant or nothing about, would have chuckled at this AP Dhillon-version of optimism in existing. READ MORE