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

The Tokyo Olympics is undoubtedly going to be the talk of the town for the next two months. As such, many sports will be in the limelight, including athletics, archery, and shooting, to name a few.

However, in archery, the Tokyo Olympics is a matter of now or never for India, where the sport has been a curious case. Nobody has understood till date how a country, with a wide history of renowned archers, has not won a single Olympic medal to date.

They have been ranked as high as No. 1 and have won several medals at the World Championships. However, when it comes to the Olympics, Indian archers develop cold feet.

The archers surprisingly choke when they need their talent to deliver the most. What other reason could be there that archers like Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das, who could otherwise win the gold medals with ease, don't even make it to the final eight?

India has been a part of every archery event at the Olympics since the Seoul Olympics of 1988. However, the recurve archers have mostly cut a sorry figure.

Except for Satyadev Prasad and Atanu Das, the latter having qualified for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, none of the male archers made it beyond the pre-quarterfinals to date. The women's team have fared slightly better in this regard, making it to the quarterfinals of the team event more than once. However, they have failed to progress beyond the final eight.

Unfortunately, compound archery is not an Olympic sport. Otherwise, the situation wouldn't look bad in comparison to the recurve archers.

As such, the Tokyo Olympics is the last chance for the recurve archers from India to shed their 'chokers' label. They are capable of giving even the best a run for their money, and it isn't tough for Team India to make it count.

The following Indians have qualified for the archery segment of the Tokyo Olympics as of now:

1) Atanu Das - Men's Individual Recurve, Men's Team, and Mixed Team

2) Pravin Ramesh Jadhav - Men's Individual Recurve and Men's Team

3) Tarundeep Rai - Men's Individual Recurve and Men's Team

4) Deepika Kumari Das - Women's Individual Recurve and Mixed Team

Atanu Das has to make it count at the Tokyo Olympics

Atanu Das - Time to make himself count

Though this is only his second Olympics, the Tokyo Olympics is a now-or-never opportunity for Atanu Das. The Bengali archer has been a consistent performer. He lost by a narrow margin to Lee Seung-yun of South Korea in the pre-quarterfinals and is the only Indian since Satyadev Prasad to have made it this far.

However, the archer is more than ready to make amends and prove himself in Tokyo. He is ranked 17th overall, and has been instrumental in many influential victories. After 14 years, he helped India clinch a medal in the recurve team category at the 2019 World Championships.

Atanu also has another chance in the mixed category. This is the first event in the history of archery that will debut at the Tokyo Olympics. If everything goes to plan, his wife and co-archer Deepika Kumari shall be a part of the team. As such, the Tokyo Olympics is a make or break for Atanu Das.

Tokyo Olympics the ideal venue for Deepika Kumari to lose the 'choker' tag

Deepika Kumari - Time to shed the 'Choker's' tag

Once upon a time, she was the apple of India's eye. Ranked world No. 1 at the just 17, Deepika Kumari Mahato, a girl with humble roots, was all set to win the world in London 2012.

Years later, Deepika Kumari is yet to make her mark at the Olympics. While she is a capable archer and has made herself count at many championships, an Olympic medal has surprisingly evaded her. Despite being ranked a respectable eighth, Deepika crashed out of the first round during her debut stint at the 2012 London Olympics.

Though she made some marginal improvements and reached the pre-quarterfinals in Rio, Deepika was unable to progress further. As such, the Tokyo Olympics is a make-or-break event for this young athlete.

If she wants to create a legacy for herself, she has to break the mold and make herself count. Even a medal in the Tokyo Olympics mixed category would be nothing less than historic, especially with her soulmate and co-archer Atanu Das by her side.

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.

Tokyo Olympics: What ails Team India?

Archery at the Olympics - What ails Team India?

What is the actual problem with Indian archers? What prevents them from making the Olympics their favorite playground? Isn't it surprising that a nation with a history of brave warriors like Arjuna, Birsa Munda, Maharana Pratap, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, to name a few, has not won a single Olympic medal in archery? The only medal that India has achieved is a rather unsung bronze by Atul Varma at the Nanjing Youth Olympics in 2014.

What could be the reason? Is it because our archers are not as well equipped as their international counterparts? This is almost impossible because, since 2010, special attention has been given to archery. In fact, since 2015 and heading into the Tokyo Olympics, archery has been one of the top focus sports for the Government of India.

So what is the problem? It lies somewhere in the execution. When India needs their athletes to perform their best is when they falter. This is the same problem that ails South Africa in cricket, and which has been troublesome for the Netherlands in football.

So if India needs to ensure that the recurve archers don't become a laughing stock at the Tokyo Olympics, they need to give it their all to bring back the elusive Olympic medal. They also need to keep their wits about them and ensure that nobody chokes in the dying minutes of the contest.