Sometimes, expectations can play spoilsport. When you are a sportsperson, specifically a sportswoman from India, expectations can really play havoc with your dreams. When you’re Deepika Kumari, the pressure to manage expectations becomes greater than the pressure that it took to raise the expectations of viewers back home to those unmanageable levels.
For Deepika Kumari, talent has hardly been a problem. Topping the world rankings, winning a gold medal in an individual stage in the Archery World Cup, equalling the world record, Kumari at the tender age of 22 has seen and done all of that. For a woman who was awarded the Longines Prize for Precision for the most “Precise Archer of the World” in May this year, an award given to the archer with the most number of 10’s (Bullseyes) in the World Cup season, a lack of ability is not the concern.
Instead, the problem lies in Kumari’s consistency at the highest level. Cue London 2012. The archer from Ranchi, who was a mere 18 years old back then, went into the women’s individual recurve event held at the Lord’s Cricket Ground as the World No 1 and the top seed.
Undone by expectations
After finishing eighth in the qualifying round to determine the draw, she was upset by lowly-ranked Amy Oliver in the first round and fell at the first hurdle. Expected to lead the six-member Indian archery team to medal finishes, the top-ranked member of the contingent had tamely crashed out, leaving the campaign in shambles.
Although mitigating conditions – a viral fever that affected the entire contingent, including Deepika, and heavy gusts of wind – were put forward, the highly-regarded team of 2012 came back home empty-handed.
The magnitude of the disastrous campaign clearly played on Kumari’s mind as her ranking swayed and tumbled after that. During a poor season in which her ranking fell to 19, Kumari was also left out of two World Cup squads in 2013.
At her lowest ebb, Kumari was forced to go back to the basics to rectify any chinks that might have existed in technique earlier. The Archery Association of India had even conducted a mental toughness camp to ensure that the archers were able to handle pressure-cooker situations.
Kumari eventually managed to bounce back from her London horror show to win an individual silver medal, as well as two team medals at the World Cups in 2015 and 2016. Deepika equalled Ki Bo Bae’s world record in rousing fashion, notching up a score of 686 out of 720 at the qualification round of the Archery World Cup Stage I in Shanghai, but faltered in the next round after putting up another inconsistent performance.
Hitting the right notes
While Kumari, ranked 12th in the world this time, will still be the lynchpin of the archery contingent, a lack of pressure and limelight could benefit the sole male Indian archer, 24-year-old Atanu Das. In the past few years, Das has gone from strength to strength and is currently ranked 22nd in the world.
Das showed glimpses of his ability when he finished fourth at the third stage of the Archery World Cup held in Antalya, Turkey, earlier this year. It was not the result but the manner in which he attained it that surprised many onlookers.
Pit against the reigning world champion and World No 1 Kim Woojin of South Korea in the individual bronze medal play-off, Das showed no signs of pressure, while taking on an opponent ranked 51 places above him. He took a 4-0 lead before Woojin fought back to tie the score at 10-10. Woojin narrowly won the ensuing tie-break as his arrow was closer to the centre than Das's was. Das may have lost that match-up, but had displayed the necessary skills to succeed at the biggest stage.
Das’s accomplishments sound even more impressive when you take into account that he hadn’t won the initial Olympic quota in the individual men’s recurve. Das won a selection trial against veteran Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia, who had initially won the quota.
Perhaps the key to India’s medal hopes lie with the other two women heading to Rio alongside Deepika Kumari – Laxmirani Majhi and Bombayla Devi Laishram, competing in her third Olympics.
While the two women are lower than Deepika Kumari in the individual pecking order, the three are a formidable team and head to Rio as one of the favourites, ranked third in the world. However, they won’t have it easy as Russia’s team, ranked No 2 in the world, have been cleared by the World Archery Federation after an initial blanket-ban on the Russian contingent for state-sponsored doping.
If 2012 was touted as the year that India ended its medal drought in archery, 2016 will be the year India’s contingent will go in with lower expectations. Towering dreams may be replaced by sobering reality, but it may do this contingent a world of good.