Ace Indian acrcher Deepika Kumari on Monday confessed that she needs to stop buckling under the pressure of performance at the Olympic Games and approach the biggest sporting stage from a different perspective to deliver desired results in future.
In the form of her life after winning five World Cup medals this year, the 27-year-old carried the hopes of 1.3 billion Indians to get the sport their first Olympic archery medal in Tokyo.
But it turned out to be anti-climactic as she fizzled out without putting up a fight in both her individual and mixed pair quarterfinals encounters to cap yet another horror Olympic campaign.
“Woh paanch ring ka pressure, haavi ho ja raha hai (pressure of the five Olympic rings is becoming a bit too much),” confessed Deepika after returning to Kolkata.
Deepika said she has understood that instead of running after the medals, they need to work on ‘enjoying the moment’ at the Olympics, something they lack.
“Everyone keeps saying we don’t have a medal, we don’t have a medal. We think of it a thousand times there, and it dominates our psyche. It’s a mental blockade and goes on affecting our techniques.”
“It’s high time that I introspect into my game and see it in a different perspective now. There are certain things we are lacking too much. Basically we need to change the perspective of our games.”
“We’ve to see all games equally, be it World Cup, World Championships or the Olympics. But there we think too much about a medal. We have to take it easy and enjoy the moment.”
“In the World Cup or World Championships too, the medal is the ultimate goal but we never keep thinking about it. But once we reach the Olympics, we are not able to get over the thoughts of winning a medal. We need to work on it.”