In a historic turn of events, India is all set to send a full six-member contingent to the Paris Olympics 2024 scheduled to start from July 26. This was made possible after the Indian archery men’s and women’s teams qualified for the Olympics, as per the updated rankings on Monday. The last time India sent a full archery contingent was in the 2012 Olympics held in London where the team competed in four events while the fifth event i.e. the mixed team event was included for the first time in Tokyo 2020.

The Chance

A team qualification guarantees a chance to participate in all the events that are a part of the Olympics as far as Archery as a sport is concerned.

“The archery contingent will leave on July 9 for acclimatization in Paris. We have good memories of Paris, hopefully, we can do it this time,” Indian high-performance director Sanjeeva Singh told PTI.

The Team

As far as the Indian squad is concerned it comprises 40-year-old Tarundeep Rai and former world No. 1 Deepika Kumari who will be making her fourth Olympic appearance. Dhiraj Bommadevara, Ankita Bhakat, and Bhajan Kaur will make their Olympic debuts, while Pravin Jadhav will make his second Olympic Games in succession after making his debut in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If we talk about Deepika the experienced archer has won a Gold medal in World Cup 2021 in Paris and a Bronze Medal in the 2013 World Cup.

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The Plan

“As of now, the members will shift base to the Army Sports Institute in Pune for a two-week camp, simulating Olympic atmosphere, something they had done before the Tokyo Games too,” Singh said.

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The Schedule

Archery events in the Paris Olympics will be a nine-day long event with the qualification round starting on July 25 followed by men’s and women’s event medal events on July 28 and 29 respectively.

India squad

Men: Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Pravin Jadhav.

Women: Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat.

Coaches: Baek Woongki, Poornima Mahato, and Sonam Tshering Bhutia.