Pullela Gopichand is a former Indian badminton player. Presently, he is the Chief National Coach for the Indian Badminton team.He won the All England Open Badminton Championships in 2001 becoming the second Indian to achieve this feat after Prakash Padukone. He runs the Gopichand Badminton Academy. He received the Arjuna Award in 1999, the Dronacharya Award in 2009 and the Padma Bhushan - India's third highest civilian award - in 2014. Pullela Gopichand was born on 16th November 1973 in Nagandla of Prakasam District of Andhra Pradesh. His father’s name is Pullela Shubhash Chandra and his mother’s name is Subbaravamma. He has one elder brother named Rajashekar. He completed his schooling at the St. Paul’s School. He married P. V. V. Lakshmi on 5th June 2002 who is also a badminton player. After he completed his schooling he joined A. V. College at Hyderabad and got his graduation in Public Administration. He served as the Captain of the Indian Combined Universities Badminton team in 1990 and 1991. Initially he was coached by S. M. Arif and later he joined the BPL Prakash Padukone Academy. At the Sports Authority of India at Bangalore he was coached by Ganguly Prasad.

He consecutively won the National Badminton Championship title for five years from 1996 to 2000. At the National Games 1998 held at Imphal he won two gold medals and one silver medal. He entered international badminton in 1991 and represented India in the international tournament many times. He got gold medal in the SAARC badminton tournament held at Vijayawada in 1996. He also bagged gold medal in the tournament held at Colombo in 1997. He won the prestigious 2001 All England Open Badminton Championships at London. He received Arjuna Award in 2000 and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2001 from the Government of India. The Government of Andhra Pradesh honored him by offering cash prize and a plot in the Jubilee Hills of Hyderabad. He received Padma Shri Award in 3005 and Dronocharya Award on 29th August 2009.