Insult After Injury

I am writing this piece on Monday evening, July 29, when both the women’s and men’s archery teams have been eliminated with poor quarter-final showings. After an excellent ranking round where the men fin­ished third and the women fourth on July 25, much was expected from both teams. Many including me had counted a medal for the men’s team, coming at the back of the Asian Games silver last October in Hangzhou.

Make no mistake, the performance was below par here in Paris. The archers ought to have done more and handled pressure better. Each time I spoke to them, I sensed a kind of underconfi­dence that cost them dear. It was as if they were not really ready to be pushed into a corner. And once that happened and they were down 0-4, they did not know a way back. Having failed to perform, criticism is fair, and much needed. Our athletes have been given every facility to train and we expect them to shine at the biggest stage of all. Failing which, they will indeed be held accountable and questioned. But then that is where the buck stops. Or rather, the line drawn. What we have seen in the aftermath of the losses has been pathetic. Deepika Kumari, one of India’s best archers and athletes of all time, has been abused and trolled viciously (and some have gone so far ahead as to say she should go back to her child and breastfeed for that is what suits her better).

And that is where I have an issue with our fans. Or, should I call them trolls? As Deepika said, “They don’t follow Olympic sport in four years and just when an Olympic Games is round the corner, do all of them become Olympic experts? All I want to say to them is if you can’t support us, it’s fine, but then don’t abuse us. We haven’t done anything to be abused.”

Deepika, for the record, has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. “She isn’t speaking to me nicely. Each time I call her, she just wants to say bye and hang up. I have hardly seen her in the last few months and it hasn’t been easy being a young mother. I have trained the hardest possible but really don’t know why things went wrong,” she said. Balancing the rigours of training and the pressures of motherhood has not been easy and it has started to take a toll on her. As she was speaking, her eyes welled up. “To train every single day when your daughter is with your in-laws isn’t easy. You start to feel a sense of guilt. Am I not a good mother is a question you often ask yourself. Do I not do what is expected of me? Will my daughter feel anything like this while growing up, and will she understand what her mother wanted to do and stood for?” There was no stopping Deepika.

“I had left her just 25 days after I had become a mother to pursue my dream of representing India at the Olympics. I was breastfeeding then and you know what it is like for a woman in such a scenario. I was bodyshamed and called names. I was repeatedly questioned and asked if I could do it again. But I did not want to give up and pursued my dream. The first day I went to the camp, I was finding it impossible to hold the bow. I did not have the strength and was breathless. But then I had to. For myself and for my country,” she said.

The abuse heaped on Deepika clearly exposes the lack of a sporting culture in India. For people to say what is the big deal in qualify­ing for the Olympics sounds ridicu­lously stupid at times. Such things can only be said when there is little or no understanding of sport. For the record, not even 0.01 per cent Indians have made it to the Olympics, and here is someone who has qualified for her third Olympic Games. Many have suggested that Deepika is no good and it is time for her to give up and retire. The question to ask them is: Why? Who are they to ask an ath­lete to retire? Will they stop posting on X for a change and retire instead? As Facebook and Instagram warriors, will they stop abusing from behind the veil and come out and reveal their locked profiles? Deepika Kumari has come to the Olympics having won the selection trials. No one has done her a favour and included her in the team. As and when she has to retire, it will be based on her own choice.

“I have loved my sport and that’s the only thing I know. I have now been doing it for a decade-and-a-half. I have spent more than half my life on the archery range and have given it my all. For people to say I should retire is some­what insensitive. Have they come and seen what I have done to prepare? Do they understand how disappointed I am for not having met my own expectations in Paris? Do they know the pain that an athlete goes through? It is not easy to fail and soak in all the abuse. It feels bad that my own people do it,” argued Deepika.

As she was speaking, Ankita and Bhajan, both young athletes, had come behind her biting their nails. Both were distraught. Neither could speak and Bhajan was in tears. At her age, I was at university. She is here in Paris representing India at the Olympics. That she is talented does not make her any less vulnerable and that is something we must all understand and appreciate. And yet, we do not. For a section of the Indian fans, it is medal or noth­ing. The process does not matter, nor does the effort. They forget that India is not China. You do not do in India what the Chinese do. Nor do we aspire to do so. India is not yet the developed West where every second child has access to sport facilities. It is only recently that our athletes have been given the best facilities to train and we have started to treat sport as a soft power. Government investment in sport and the TOPS scheme is not even a decade-old story, and yet we want to be in the top 10 of the Olympics.

Restraint and sensitivity, that is what the fickle Indian fan needs to inculcate. Be with the athlete all of the four years and not just turn up around the Olympics and start abusing. Every athlete who has made the Olympics has done so based on their merit and potential. They deserve better than all the filth that is heaped on them.

As this magazine hits the stands, there will still be a week left for the Games. And I am sure India will have won more medals by then. Let me say this one more time: I stay confident the Indians have the talent and the ability. Multiple finals in shooting are clear evidence that we have left Tokyo behind. That our shooters are ready for the big stage and are not here in Paris to make up for the numbers. Rather, they are here to win and have the ability to beat the world’s best. Manu Bhaker, who opened India’s medal tally, is proof of this transformation. After her gun malfunctioned in Tokyo and Manu was unable to make the final, she was abused and trolled for days and weeks on end. So much so that Manu even contemplated doing something drastic. Just a year ago, she wanted to give up on the sport and quit. It was too much for her to deal with. That she did not is a boon for India.

Today, all of India is chanting for her. That is where we go wrong. We only celebrate winners and throw the ones who came close by the wayside. That they are the champions of tomorrow is not recognised. Rather, they are useless and do not deserve to be here is the common refrain. The truth is we have turned the corner as a multi-sporting nation but we have not yet when it comes to fandom. It is still a very immature sporting culture and needs to get better by a mile.

archery teamDeepika KumariIndian teamManu BhakerOlympic GamesParis 2024