Indian Archery team on mission to remove their 'chokers' tag at the Olympics

Archery’s ascendance at the Olympics started at the 1972 Munich Games, with the discipline making a comeback after 52 years, following which it has been a mainstay at the quadrennial event. However, India came to the scene much later, during the 1988 Seoul Games, when Shyam Lal, Limba Ram and Sanjeev Singh represented the country in the men’s individual events as well as the team event. However, the Indians failed to get past the first hurdle in any of the events, making it a forgettable debut at the Games.

Deepika Kumari, arguably India’s greatest ever archer, has swept away regular medals at the World Cups since 2011, across individual and team events. The Ranchi-based athlete’s sky-rocketing records in 2011 and 2012 earned her instant recognition, with her entering the 2012 London Olympics as the world no. 1 archer. Might be stage fright, adverse wind conditions or an ailing fever, Kumari’s first-round exit was the least everyone had expected when she was shown the door by local Amy Oliver.

The astronomical change in her attitude, ability to handle pressure was clearly visible during the recently concluded World Cup Stage I, where she claimed a Gold medal in the individual category as well as the team event.

If the women’s team manage to make the cut, the chances of scripting India’s first medal at the Games gets enhanced further. At the end of it, Deepika Kumari will be pivotal to each of the above-mentioned cases.

Atanu Das, who tied the knot with Deepika Kumari last year and one of the top Indian archers in the recent past, had also raised hopes during the previous edition of the Olympics, but eventually took an exit route in the round-of-16 as well. Incidentally, the athlete’s graph has shown an upward spiral as days progressed, with his career perfectly poised to peak at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Not even Jayanta Talukdar, the first Indian to win a medal at an Archery World Cup, was in the best version of himself when he represented India at the 2021 London Olympics. To add to it, leaving out Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav for good would also be inhuman, with the way the duo have been fared in the past year or so. Tarundeep Rai is a veteran of three Olympics and his story couldn’t script a better epilogue with an Olympic medal as a major highlight.

Undoubtedly, this is India’s best-ever Archery contingent at the Games, even if India fails to secure a medal. But it is high time the current crop brush away the past haunts and start the medal counter for the particular discipline at the stage where it matters the most. Moreover, Archery has the potential to bring regular medals for India at the Olympics, a recognition that has been achieved by Wrestling in the past three Games. But, for now, the eyes are on the Tokyo showdown, with the archers plucking the string for  bulls-eye and Olympic glory.