Saina Nehwal Announces Retirement from Badminton After Stellar Career

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 21 January 2026

• Saina Nehwal, Olympic bronze medalist, announces retirement from competitive badminton
• The 33-year-old has not played football for almost two years due to his knee condition
• Her last international game was during the 2023 Singapore Open

Olympic medalist Saina Nehwal, widely considered to be amongst India's greatest ever badminton players, has announced her retirement from sport after being forced to take almost two years off due to her chronic knee issue.

Saina last saw action in the 2023 Singapore Open and officially retired from her sport on Monday in a podcast conducted by Subhojit Ghosh.

"I hadn’t played in two years now," Saina, who turns 36 in March, said. "I felt that I’d entered and exited the sport on my own terms, and there was no point in making an official statement about it."

The former world No. 1 pinpointed the intense degeneration of the cartilage within her knees as the chief reason for reaching such a decision.

"The cartilage is totally degenerated, and I have arthritis. I just told my parents and coaches, ‘I can't do this anymore, it's tough now, " she added.

"If you want to be in the best in the world, you need to train at least eight to nine hours every day. But my knee would give out after two hours, it would swell and it would be hard for me to go further. So, it was about time and I couldn't push more," she said.

She has spent three decades at the pinnacle of her sport, and for Indian badminton, it is quite literally the end of an era.

Saina made a name globally in 2008 when she won the title of junior world champion and also became the first Indian woman to reach the quarterfinals in singles badminton in the Olympics in Beijing.

She created history in 2009, becoming the first Indian player to win a BWF Super Series trophy by claiming the Indonesia Open and also secured gold

Saina is only the second Indian ever (after Prakash Padukone) to achieve that distinction. Saina also reached the Finals of the BWF World Championships that same year, where she won a Silver Medal after losing to Carolina Marin.

In 2024, Saina revealed that her knees were suffering from Arthritis and that all of the Cartilage was worn out of both of her Knees.

Saina Nehwal has received every major National Award, including Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Khel Ratna, and Arjuna Award during her career. A movie was also made about her life titled Saina.