Prakash Padukone

Padukone was born in Bangalore. His father, Ramesh Padukone, was secretary of the Mysore Badminton Association, and introduced him to the game. He won the Commonwealth Games singles gold medal at Edmonton in 1978, the All England Open in 1980, beating Liem Swie King of Indonesia in the final, and the Badminton World Cup in 1981. He retired from competition in 1991.

He afterwards served briefly as chairman of the Badminton Association of India and coached the Indian national team from 1993 to 1996. In 1994 he founded the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy in Bangalore with Vimal Kumar and Vivek Kumar.

Olympic Gold Quest, founded by Padukone and Geet Sethi in 2001, scouts athletes in Olympic and Paralympic disciplines, assesses what support they need and works with other stakeholders to provide it. The organisation is run day to day by Viren Rasquinha, a former captain of the India men's hockey team, as managing director and chief executive.

Four of India's six medallists at the 2012 London Olympics were supported by the organisation. Athletes it has backed include P. V. Sindhu, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Mary Kom and Gagan Narang. By the mid-2020s it reported supporting around 400 athletes across ten Olympic and eight Paralympic sports, including roughly 150 junior athletes and 101 para-athletes.

Padukone received the Arjuna Award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982.[2][3][4]