India goes to the Tokyo Olympics with great expectations from the archery team. Or, more importantly, from a single archer who would compete in her third Olympic Games.
Deepika Kumari knows a thing or two about being a medalist favorite, having ply her trade on the international circuit for over a decade. At the age of 16, she declared herself as the country’s ace archer, winning gold medals in individual and team events at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
The daughter of an auto driver and a nurse won the World Cup gold at the age of 18 at Ranchi Medical College. She was the world’s top archer at the time, aiming to become the country’s youngest athlete to win an Olympic medal in London in 2012. But the pressure that came with expectations put a heavy load on the archer as she could not finish on the podium in London or the Rio Games four years later.
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