‘Pressure is a privilege’ is a clichéd expression oft-used in the sports world. We have grown so accustomed to seeing sports legends thriving in adverse situations that we have come to accept that it is the norm.
But is pressure really a privilege for all athletes? Ask Katinka Hosszu, the Hungarian swimmer who broke a world record to clinch the gold medal in 400m individual medley at the Rio Olympics just a few hours back.
It took four Games for the prolific swimmer to get the taste of her first Olympic medal. The 27-year-old had been no stranger to success even before but the burgeoning expectations from her own countrymen injected into her a fear of losing – a bane for any sportsperson. That was reflected in her performance four years ago in London when she unbelievably finished in the fourth place in that same discipline, right outside the medal bracket.
Right before the Rio Games commenced, she reminisced about how difficult she had made it for herself in an interview to the New York Times.
“In London, I was so scared of what’s going to happen if I lose,” Hosszu said. “It was awful, really. I just felt like: ‘This is my time; I need to show it. It’s now or never.’ I put this pressure on myself.”
Hosszu’s career trajectory follows a similar path as that of Indian archery’s blue-eyed girl Deepika Kumari – a prodigious talent who soared high, then fell miserably low unable to cope up with pressure.
The similarity between London and Rio
It was the same London Games where the Indian, then an ebullient girl of 18 years, arrived on the hallowed turf of the Lord’s Cricket Ground, brimming with confidence. And why wouldn’t she be?
Medals were coming thick and fast for the teenager in the preceding two years which saw her delighting her adoring home fans by winning the Commonwealth Games gold at Delhi in 2010 in both individual and team categories. Silver and bronze medals at World Cups followed that culminated in a glittering individual gold at Antalya right before the mega quadrennial Games in 2012.
The Ranchi archer was surely the toast of the entire nation and it was not unrealistic to expect her to shine on the podium. But she floundered and exited in an opening round disaster that left the archery lovers shell-shocked.
The blustery winds at London along with fever were the architects of her downfall as she later claimed. It was agonizing to watch a girl, who had the world in her stride just days back, painting such a distressing picture of herself.
Four years later, last Friday provided a harrowing reminder of that fateful day in London as the 22-year-old grappled with her inner self-belief during the ranking round at Rio. She positioned herself on the top of the table ahead of even the formidable Korean trio of Choi Misun, Chang Hye Jin and Ki Bo Bae after five rounds.
But just when she was required to maintain her consistency, her shots started fluctuating wildly and down she slid to outside the top 20 before eventually ending at the 20th spot. What was horrifying to note was that the Indian completely missed her target in the seventh round and drew a blank that was instrumental in giving her such a poor finish.
Deepika was left as perplexed as the millions of Indians following her back home. When asked to dissect what exactly led to that blunder, the World No. 12 was at a loss.
“Nothing was wrong apart from the wind. It was difficult to follow and understand. I shot the arrow and it was a miss. Of course [that] is not what I expected, but there’s nothing I can do about it now,” Deepika told PTI.
With the archery contingent having landed at least a couple of weeks before the event, her failure to acclimatize to the conditions looks questionable. Olympic debutant Atanu Das from the same team putting up an impressive show on the same day doesn’t help her cause much.
Is it perhaps a deep-rooted cause for Deepika? Self-admittedly, she felt unnerved by the aura associated with the Olympic Games four years ago and her fall from grace was fast. Her confidence was shattered and so was her game. Fear had gripped her to the point of numbing her senses. The joy and passion she had so much for her beloved sport, ebbed away gradually.
Having been omitted from the national team right after her London debacle, Kumari clawed her way back slowly with the help of her old coach Dharmendra Tiwary who rectified a technical error in her shooting. Sessions with sports psychologist Bhishmraj Bam and mental trainer Lorenzo Beltrame did show the sparkle back in her to a certain extent but consistency was something she was never quite good at even after the resurrection of her career.
In the face of onslaught from experienced archers, the youngster still has her moments of doubt. Consider her performance at the latest Archery World Cup in the coastal Turkish city of Antalya. Just weeks ahead of Rio when experts went busy anointing her as a gold medal prospect, she slumped in the individual competition, finishing ninth.
She was in contention with Atanu Das for the gold medal in the mixed recurve section. Her scores kept on oscillating and they even reached a lowly 6 at one point that readily handed over the gold medal to the Korean team of Choi Misun and Ku Bonchan.
It is not a trend that Deepika would like to be a proud possessor of. It unfortunately points out to her proclivity of falling prey to over expectations and subsequently choking under its burden even after all this while.
Maybe, she should take a leaf out of the Women’s 10am air rifle champion Virginia Thrasher’s book. The American, who won the first gold medal of Rio Olympics at the tender age of 19, underlined how important it was to love one’s sport, leaving aside the unnecessary pressure.
“I didn’t really care much about the Olympics. I knew shooting was an Olympic sport, but I never really thought, ‘Oh, I want to go to the Olympics in shooting.’ I was just shooting because I loved shooting,” she explained.
Somewhere in all this, Kumari had perhaps forgotten how deeply she reveres this sport and needs to remind herself of the simple joys of shooting a target. The moment she can dissociate the pressure of performing from her passion, she can rise.
She has two chances – in the team competition today and in the individual event on Wednesday. Can she do it?
