In Paris Olympics 2024, the Indian archery team will try its best to win a medal for the first time. Archery was included in the Olympics in 1988 and since then Indian archers have been participating in almost every Olympic Games, but have failed to reach the podium so far. Actually, the venue will be different and so will the year and a new Olympics, but the goal of Indian archers will be the same old one, to win the first medal in the Olympic Games.
Indian archers will begin their campaign at the Paris Olympics with a qualification round at Les Invalides Gardens on Thursday. The men’s team final at the Paris Olympics will begin on Monday, while the individual eliminations will begin on Tuesday. The mixed team final will be held next Friday and the women’s and individual finals will be held the same weekend.
Indian archers could not advance beyond quarter finals
Indian archers have not yet progressed beyond the quarter-finals in the Olympics. India failed to qualify for archery only in the Sydney Olympics 2000. Apart from this, it participated in all the Olympic Games, but could not improve its performance.
This is the first time since the London Olympics 2012 that the Indian team consists of all 6 players. The Indian men’s and women’s teams qualified for the Olympics on the basis of ranking, which means that this time Indian archers will participate in 5 events.
Veterans Tarundeep Rai and Deepika Kumari are participating in their fourth Olympics. The team led by them will have to make it to at least the top 10 in the qualification to get a favourite draw.
Each archer will shoot 72 arrows and the scores of the 128 players from 53 countries taking part in the qualification round will determine seeding for the main knockout competition starting on Sunday.
The qualification round will be crucial for the Indian team, which has often been seeded lower and thus faces a strong team like South Korea in the knockout stage.
In the Tokyo Olympics, all the Indian male archers could not make it to the top 30, due to which the Indian team was seeded 9th. India’s only female archer Deepika had secured 9th position. India then had to face defeat against top seed Korea in their respective quarter-final matches.
India has high hopes from the men’s team, which created history by defeating Korea in the World Cup final in Shanghai this year.
The Indian team comprises experienced players in the form of Rai and last Olympian Praveen Jadhav, while youngster Dheeraj Bommadevara will be buoyed by winning the bronze medal a month ago at the Antalya World Cup by defeating Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mauro Nespoli of Italy.
All eyes will be on Deepika Kumari
In the women’s category, all eyes will be on Deepika. Within 16 months of becoming a mother, she made a brilliant comeback by winning a silver medal in the first stage of the World Cup in Shanghai.
Accompanying her in the women’s team are Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur. This will be the first Olympics for both of them, but they have been part of the Indian team in the current Olympic cycle and are expected to perform well.
If Dheeraj and Deepika top the ranking round, then a medal can be expected from them in the recurve mixed team.
Indian Archery Team for Paris Olympics 2024
Men’s Recurve
Dheeraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Roy, Praveen Jadhav
Women’s Recurve
Bhajan Kaur, Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat