When you hear a successful story, you know a lot has gone behind it.. Years of hard work, determination, sweat, tears and what not… but that’s what a makes a story worth telling… I am writing about a girl who turned to sport only to escape poverty and at the age of 18, became the world number one…She is Indian Ace Archer Deepika Kumari. Born on 13th June 1994 in Ratu Chati, a village 15 km away from Ranchi, Deepika Kumari hails from a very humble background. Her father Shivnath Mahato drove an auto-rickshaw for a living and her mother, Geeta Mahato, was a nurse at the Ranchi Medical College . It was Geeta’s dream that her daughter would become a doctor, a dream she could not fulfil for herself… But destiny had something else in store for Deepika Kumari.. As a child, Deepika used to target mangoes on trees with a wooden bow and arrow.. and no surprises here…she seldom missed the targets…However, she was not serious about what she was doing… Deepika’s introduction to a proper bow and arrow for the first time came in 2016 when she joined the Tata Archery Academy, thanks to her cusion who told deepika about it. The decision of taking archery as a profession did not go well with the family. Her family was struggling to make ends meet and there was no chance that they could afford Deepika’e expenses but her passion for archery and belief in herself was enough to change her parents perspective.. Shortly after joining the academy, results started to show in Deepika’s favour..In 2006, 12 year old Deepika won the Junior Archery World Cup, becoming only the second Indian to win the title. Three years later, she won the coveted Youth World Archery Championships, beating world class champions in her age group. She was now an inspiration to many young girls across the nation.. but her personal best was yet to come.. It was her marvellous show at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi that made her an undisputed queen of archery.. At the CWG 2010, she won two gold medals, one in the individual event and the other in the women’s team recurve event. In Asian Games of 2010 however, Deepika missed out on a bronze medal, losing in a play-off match. But as a part of the Indian archery recurve team, along with her teammates, Deepika edged out Chinese Taipei in the bronze play-off to ensure a podium finish. Later in 2012, she would go on to become world no. 1 in Women’s Recurve Archery. However, it was not always smooth sailing for Deepika. She faced some major setbacks too, One of them being bowing out of the 2012 London Olympics in the very first round. The failure at the London Olympics hit her hard, she bounced back and is now more determined than ever to prover herself. She finally ended her long medal drought when she clinched gold medal in the recurve event at the World Cup (stage-III) in US last month. Perhaps a slight change in her technique helped a lot during the tournament. The win will certainly boost her confidence for the upcoming Asian Games to be held in Jakarta from 18th August 2018.
sportspunch 