Archer Deepika Kumari and her Olympic struggle
Deepika Kumari has competed in four Olympics. She managed to reach the quarter-finals of the individual events at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Archery
Deepika Kumari has been a dominant force in Indian archery for a decade now. The experienced archer has won medals at the World Championships, World Cups, Asian Championships, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. However, the only piece of metal missing in her glittering cabinet is an Olympic medal.
By the time she hit 30, Deepika Kumar appeared in four Olympic Games, with Paris 2024 being her fourth straight appearance in archery at the quadrennial event.
Here, we recap Deepika Kumari’s performances at the Olympics.
Deepika Kumari at London 2012 Olympics
Hopes were high from Deepika Kumari as she was the top-ranked archer leading into the London Games. However, the Indian archer could not justify the No. 1 rank and endured a difficult Olympic debut as she was down with fever soon after landing in the English capital.
Deepika made a promising start in the ranking round to end up on the eighth spot with 662 points. However, the then 18-year-old could not sustain the form and lost to 57th seed Amy Oliver from Great Britain in the first elimination round.
The Indian won just one set and failed to score a single perfect 10 in the entire match, losing the contest 6-2. Deepika Kumari finished tied 33rd in the individual recurve event.
The Indian women’s team, involving Bombayla Devi, Chekrovolu Swuro and Deepika Kumari, also crashed out in the opening round. The trio lost to Denmark by one point (211-210) thus ending Deepika Kumari’s campaign at London 2012.
Deepika Kumari at Rio 2016 Olympics
Deepika Kumari was rated highly again heading into Rio 2016. Three months before the event, the archer had equalled the qualification round world record.
The Ranchi girl started the ranking round strongly at Rio and was among the top 10 after 18 arrows. However, she slipped in the second half to head into the eliminations as the 20th ranked archer.
In the eliminators, Deepika Kumari overcame a tough challenge from Georgian Kristine Esebua in the round of 64 and defeated Guendalina Sartori from Italy in the next to move into the top 16.
However, she was blanked 6-0 in the round of 16 by Tan Ya-ting of Chinese Taipei, bringing an end to her individual campaign.
In the team event, Deepika Kumari was joined by veteran Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi. The India troika beat Colombia 5-3 in the round of 16 but went down fighting to Russia 4-5 in a shoot-off.
Deepika Kumari at Tokyo 2020 Olympics
After heartbreaks at Rio and London, Deepika Kumari qualified for the Tokyo Games through a gold medal at the Asian Continental Qualification Tournament in Bangkok in 2019.
Deepika Kumari entered Tokyo 2020 as the world No. 1 and was the lone female archer from India at Tokyo. She competed in the women’s individual recurve and mixed team event with Pravin Jadhav.
In the women’s event, Deepika bettered her performance from the previous two Olympics, reaching the top eight for the first time.
However, her campaign was halted by top seed An San of the Republic of Korea, who defeated the Indian 6-0 in the quarter-final.
Deepika had finished ninth in the ranking round and ousted Bhu Karma from Bhutan and Jennifer Mucino-Fernandez of the USA in the first two elimination rounds.
She overcame a stiff challenge from ROC’s Ksenia Perova in the round of 16 to set up the clash with An San.
Deepika faced a quarter-final exit in the mixed team event, too.
The Indian team of Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav beat Chinese Taipei in the pre-quarters but lost to the top-ranked Korean side (An San/Kim Je Deok) in the next round.
Deepika Kumari at Paris 2024 Olympics
Deepika Kumari, now a mother, made her fourth Olympic apperance at Paris 2024 with India fielding a stacked team for the first time since London 2012.
At Paris 2024, Deepika Kumari participated in two events -- the women's individual and women's team with Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat.
In the ranking round, Deepika Kumari finsihed 23rd, below her compatriots Ankita Bhakat (11th) and Bhajan Kaur (23rd).
In the women’s event, Deepika beat Estonia's Reena Parnat 6-5 and Dutchwoman Quinty Roeffen 6-2 in her opening two rounds.
In the pre-quarterfinals, the Indian upstaged Germany's Michelle Kroppen 6-4. Kroppen is a Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist in the team event and would go to win a mixed team silver at Paris 2024. Deepika's run, for the second straight Games, was halted in the quarter-finals, this time by South Korea's Nam Su-hyeon, who won 6-4.
There was no luck with the women's team event either. India had received a bye in the opening round but were blanked by the Netherlands 6-0 in the quarter-finals.