Who is Tanisha Crasto? All you need to know about the Indian shuttler competing at Paris Olympics 2024
Tanisha Crasto is all set to make her Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics 2024, which began on Friday, July 26. She will be pairing up with veteran shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa, who is set to feature in her third Olympics, in the women’s doubles event.
Tanisha was born on May 5, 2003, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Indian parents Tulip and Clifford Crasto, who hail from Goa. In the initial stages of her career from 2013 onwards, the 21-year-old shuttler represented Bahrain in international tournaments and secured the women's doubles title at the Bahrain International Challenge in 2016.
When she was 14, Tanisha represented UAE, creating history after winning the Indian Club UAE Open competition in the women's singles event after defeating Negin Amiripour from Iran.
Tanisha Crasto's parents faced several hardships to help their daughter become a professional badminton player. Clifford took the toughest decision of leaving his daughter at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad on her 15th birthday, which helped her to take the sport seriously.
Clifford worked at Intel distributors in Dubai for 18 years but left his job for his daughter’s career. He has accompanied her at international tournaments throughout 2024 and is expected to cheer on her in Paris from the stands.
Tanisha Crasto shifted her base to India in 2018
After competing in the Gulf-based competitions for a few years, Tanisha Crasto shifted her base to India and started representing Goa in the Indian tournaments from 2018 onwards.
She went on to represent India in the BWF World Junior Championships in 2018 and 2019 and the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in 2019.
After joining the senior national badminton team in 2021, she competed in the Uber Cup and Sudirman Cup tournaments. Subsequently in 2022, she played her first-ever BWF World Tour Super 500 competition at the India Open.
At the 2022 Syed Modi International, she participated in the mixed doubles and clinched her maiden Super 300 title with her partner Ishaan Bhatnagar.
She paired up with Ashwini Ponnappa in 2023 and it worked wonders for the duo as they clinched four BWF World Tour titles and ended as runners-up on two instances last year. Additionally, she bagged three BWF International Challenge titles.