Paris Paralympics: Can Harvinder Singh’s gold lift archery in India?
Neeraj Chopra moment in Tokyo that changed the face of javelin in India and inspired many to take up the sport. Harvinder Singh’s gold medal in para archery in the men’s individual recurve open event on Wednesday has similar potential.
For a long time, the Olympics or Paralympics, archery has been about heartbreaks and missed opportunities. It was Limba Ram in 1992, Deepika Kumari in 2012 and Dhiraj Bommadevara in 2024. Bommadevara shot well but still missed out on a medal. In a sense, it was becoming a curse. Shoot offs, inner 10s, something or the other would keep happening and the Indians would miss the podium.
The jinx was finally broken by Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar when they won bronze in the mixed team event in compound. But they too faced a heartbreak in the semi final losing a shoot off against Iran. A gold medal, which has the ability to transform a sport, continued to be elusive.
That’s when Harvinder came as a breath of fresh air, hitting three 10s in the final to make sure that the tricolour went up at the Invalides Arena in front of a packed house.
“Medals make a difference. When I won the medal in Tokyo, I got a lot of messages from people wanting to take up archery. Now with this gold, many more people will be interested in playing. We expect corporates to take a keen interest in it,” said Harvinder.
“A sport needs its moments. Cricket had 1983. Athletics had Neeraj. Badminton had Saina and Sindhu. That’s how everyone in India started following these sports. Harvinder’s gold can do the same
