2012 Olympic bronze medalist Saina Nehwal found herself in the crosshairs of social media criticism after making a surprising confession during a podcast.
The badminton ace admitted to being unaware of the javelin throw as an Olympic sport until Neeraj Chopra's historic gold medal win at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
'When Neeraj won (the Tokyo gold in 2021), that's when I got to know there is such an event in athletics,' Saina revealed on the podcast.
Saina's statement sparked a wave of online trolling, with some comparing her to actress Kangana Ranaut for making controversial remarks.
Saina was quick to defend herself. '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,' Saina wrote, adding, 'ghar pe bait ke comment karna easy hai and sports khelna difficult' (sitting at home and commenting is easy but playing sports isn't).'
