Tokyo Olympics: It's now or never for Indian archery

Tarundeep Rai - Indian archery's Tokyo Olympics dark horse

Subedar Tarundeep Rai - The Dark horse of Indian Archery

Can Tarundeep Rai be to archery what Oscar Figueroa has been to weightlifting? If you don't know either, no worries. The Sikkimese soldier has the potential to do at the Tokyo Olympics what the Colombian weightlifter did at the Rio Olympics - create history.

Not many know this, but to date, Tarundeep Rai is the only Indian who came tantalizingly close to winning a historic individual medal at the World Championships. He lost in an intense bronze medal shoot-off to a South Korean archer in the 2005 edition but still won silver in the team edition.

Fun fact: Subedar Tarundeep Rai is the only common link to the Indian team's two silver medals at the World Championships. He was present in both editions - 2005 and 2019.

Tarundeep is also the first Indian to have won an individual medal at the Asian Games in archery, with a silver medal at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010. Can he create history by giving India its first Olympic medal in archery? Only if he holds his nerve and keeps his wits about him at the Tokyo Olympics.