If you were asked to pick that one moment by the Indian archers that stands out in your memory, it would only be Friday’s performance by the mixed team of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat, who managed to reach the semis of the Paris Olympics. While they lost their last four battle vs South Koreans, a heartbreak came yet again, when the team failed to clinch the bronze medal in the playoff vs the USA.
But this is the best we have managed in archery, ever at the Olympics. Ever. And that speaks volumes about the predicament the sport faces in the country today. You know, archery is one of the high priority sports for the SAI, and the archers, at least the top ones, get the best facilities throughout. And yet, this is what we manage; which brings us to the question, is it all worth it?
Say Yes to Funding, No to Results
Let’s just go step by step. India has been participating in archery at the Olympics since Seoul 1988, and 2024 is the first time anyone from the country has made the semis in any event of the sport, let alone a medal. Men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s team, women’s team..all have seen multiple quarters appearances across editions, but none have come up with a solid enough performance to come up with a medal.
Let’s just for a moment assume, that archery wasn’t a priority earlier, but in the last few years it certainly has been. In fact, for the Paris Olympics preparations, out of the Rs 470 crore spent by the government on various sports, around Rs 39 crore alone were spent on archers and the sport. But the results are just not coming. In fact, more money was only spent on athletics, badminton, hockey, and boxing, who have Olympic medals to back their funding.
Deepika Kumari, Just Not Good Enough
The former World No. 1 Deepika Kumari is a veteran in her own right. But only with the number of years of experience behind her, and not her performances. She is currently playing her fourth Olympics, and has time and again succumbed to pressure, to return empty-handed always. Of course, she is still alive in the women’s singles competition in Olympics 2024, but one can expect, as to what would be the outcome there.
In the individual women’s ranking round, she finished 23rd and suffered with the 8, 9 syndrome. She would start the series’ well, but would end up losing concentration, and shoot 8 or 9, and sometimes even 6 and 5. Then despite getting a direct entry into the women’s team event quarters, she had a bad string of scores, which meant India lost to the Netherlands. But this all is nothing new from Deepika. She has been repeating her mistakes at the Olympics since 2012, coming up with excuses for her poor performances.
The concerned parties should really take a stock of the situation, and get rid of the underperformers like Deepika Kumari. No matter how talented you are, if you can’t get a medal for the country in your fourth Olympics, you are not good enough.
Why Persist With Purnima Mahato & Oust South Korean Baek Woong Ki
India lost the plot here. Coach Purnima Mahato has stayed with the team since 2008 Olympics, despite not even producing a single medal, but South Korean coach Baek Woong Ki, who won two gold medals with his team in 2012 Olympics, was unceremoniously sent back home. Appointed in 2022, Ki was to train the Indian archers for Paris, but was not even given an accreditation for the Games.
Look at the way we run our sports, and then expect the medals to come. If one has to be blunt and straightforward, then to clean up this archery mess, the clean up job really needs to start with the top and Mahato should be given the marching orders. But to believe that all this will happen, would be living in a fool’s paradise. If a change had to come, it would have come long back.
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