With Indian legend, Deepika Kumari and youngster Bhajan Kaur reaching the Round of 16, the hopes of the first Olympic Medal are rising. But, the first milestone would be a semifinal. The irony is that despite winning Gold medals in all the popular global Archery events and achieving the top position of many categories multiple times in the World Archery Ranking, no Indian has reached even the semifinals in the last 10 appearances in the Olympics. Will the 2024 Olympics turn lucky for Indian Archery to earn the much-awaited semifinal and then the medal?
- Indian Archery Record in Olympics
- India in 2024 Olympics
- India at Olympics in All Sports
- India Performance in Every Olympics
Indian Archers have a strong international presence winning 42 Gold medals in multiple Asian Games and Global events. They have won Gold medals in all major international events. While Limba Ram created a world record, Deepika Kumar became the first Indian archer to achieve World Number 1 rank in women’s individual recurve. Still, surprisingly in the 9th Olympics, Indian Archers are far away from the sight of a medal as none has even reached the semifinals.
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| World Cup | 34 | 34 | 39 |
| World Cup Finals | 1 | 7 | 3 |
| World Championships | 3 | 9 | 3 |
| Asian Games | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| Commonwealth Games | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Olympics | 0 | 0 | 0 |
World Ranking of Indians in 2024
Considering the dominant performances in multiple global events, Indians have achieved the top rank in multiple categories of Archery events. Even just before 2024 Olympics, Indians Compound Women Team is ranked 1 while Indian Recurve Men Team and Compound Mixed Team are ranked 2.
| Rank | Team |
| 1 | Compound Women Team |
| 2 | Recurve Men Team |
| 2 | Compound Mixed Team |
| 8 | Recurve Women’s Team |
| 9 | Recurve Mixed Team |
In Individual events of all categories, Jyothi Surekha Vennam (4th in Compound Women Individual) is the only Indian ranked in the top 5 before Paris Olympics.
| Rank | Individual | Team |
| 4 | Jyothi Surekha Vennam | Compound Women Individual |
| 6 | Prathmesh Samadhan Jawkar | Compound Men Individual |
| 7 | Abhishek Verma | Compound Men Individual |
| 9 | Ojas Pravin Deotale | Compound Men Individual |
| 9 | Aditi Gopichand Swami | Compound Women Individual |
| 10 | Parneet Kaur | Compound Women Individual |
| 12 | Deepika Kumari | Recurve Women Individual |
| 12 | Dhiraj Bommadevara | Recurve Men Individual |
Best Performance of Indian Archers in Olympics
On July 31, 2024, Deepika Kumari and Bhajan Kaur reached quarterfinals to match the best feat achieved on 6 previous occasions.
- QF 2004 Women’s team (Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari, Sumangala Sharma)
- QF 2008 Women’s team (Dola Banerjee, Bombayala Devi, Pranitha Vardhineni)
- QF 2016 Women’s team (Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi, Laxmirani Majhi)
- QF 2020 Men’s team (Atanu Das, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai) – Finished 8th
- QF 2020 Mixed team (Deepika Kumari, Pravin Jadhav) – Finished 6th
- QF 2020 Women’s Individual (Deepika Kumari) – Finished 8th
- QF: Men’s Team – Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Ramesh Jadhav
- QF: Women’s Team – Bhajan Kaur, Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat
Will Indian Archers earn the first semifinal and then the elusive Olympic medal?
With Deepika and Bhajan Kaur, there are others also in contention. Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav are also in contention of progressing in their respective Men’s Individual Event. Mixed team of Dhiraj and Ankita will play the first match on Aug 2 against Indonesian team.
Indian Archery Schedule and Result in 2024 Olympics
Deepika and Bhajan await their Round of 16 matches to be played on Aug 3. With fingers crossed, prayers on lips and best performances in Archery Range, Indian archers and followers are eagerly awaiting the milestone.
What is your prediction?
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