Archery queen Deepika defies odds after motherhood

Olympian Deepika Kumari, who recently made a return to the international stage after becoming a mother back in 2022 during the Archery Asia Cup stage one with two gold medals, said that she did not feel any pressure during her return and rather, just wanted to perform without expectations.

Before this tournament back in February, Kumari had last worn Indian colours in the Paris Archery World Cup back in 2022. While many expected the veteran Olympian to come back with some solid performances, she surpassed expectations of many with two gold medal wins in the Asia Cup. She beat compatriot Simranjeet Kaur for the individual title before teaming up with her and Bhajan Kaur to secure the women's recurve title too.

Speaking to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) as quoted by Olympics.com, the 29-year-old archer said, "I felt no pressure. I just wanted to shoot and get back to form. I was shooting after a long time and had no expectations, I just wanted to perform, nothing else."

With momentum and confidence by her side, the archer has her eyes set on the Paris Olympics this year, which will be a huge challenge for her. India has secured just one Olympic quota in archery so far, with Dhiraj Bommadevara clinching the men's individual recurve silver medal at the Asian Continental Qualification Tournament in Bangkok last year.

The Indian archery team will get a shot at securing some more direct quotas in June when the final qualifying tournament scheduled in Antalya, Turkey comes in June. Team berths will be served after the tournament is over, with the world rankings as criteria.

Deepika does not deny the presence of pressure, but the source for her is the expectations she has from herself, not the others. The archer vowed that the team would do everything possible to get their hands on an Olympic medal.

"I do not deny there is pressure...but not from external expectations. It is because of our expectations of ourselves. I, along with the entire team, will give our best," said Deepika.

"We do not only need to perform in the last qualifying event but also the remaining three World Cups so that our ranking is good. We will leave no stone unturned to qualify for the Olympics and win a medal in Paris," she added.

After embracing the responsibilities of motherhood, Deepika's return to the Indian national team was much more difficult and needed sacrifices. The former world number one returned to practice just 28 days after giving birth to her child, but lack of fitness and rhythm kept her away from the team for a while.

In her bid to earn her spot back, Deepika left her 10-months-old daughter at home, travelling to Goesan in South Korea to train in the academy of famous archery coach Kim Hyung.

"I had never been there before but my husband Atanu (Das) had been there a few times. He kept saying it is a brilliant institute. I just thought why not give it a try? There were a lot of technical things we worked on, like correcting my grip, my balance and believe me, it has helped," Deepika stated.

The training stint produced the results she wanted as Deepika topped the charts during selection trials in Kolkata and made it to the Indian contingent for the Asia Cup held in Baghdad.