The Reluctant Star: Chikitha Taniparthi’s journey to two Asian Games gold medals

By now, the 2 gold medals she has snapped up on the 2026 Asian Video games have catapulted the extraordinarily shy compound archer Chikitha Taniparthi into the nationwide headlines. The 221-year-old – who comes from a modest farming household in Peddapalli, Telangana – is a stranger to stardom and the sprinkling of opulence that sporting achievements normally carry alongside in India.

There aren’t any fancy routines or competition-day playlists but. She doesn’t even carry a pair of earphones. All she has is a burning starvation to change into India’s most adorned archer ever. And he or she’s off to fairly a begin.

For all of the reticence, Chikitha – an enormous Mahesh Babu fan – finds inspiration in movies which can be of a extra audacious ilk.

“There was a film Ram Charan did final yr referred to as Sport Changer. After watching that – and it normally occurs once I watch sure movies – I believed, what ought to I do or be taught from this? I personally ought to change the sport the place I’m,” Chikitha instructed The Hindu a number of weeks earlier than getting down to Japan for the Asiad.

“Now, everybody says, no matter rank Chikitha is in, she is going to someway change the sport and are available up. Equally, I watched a movie referred to as Biker, the place the message blared, ‘No concern.’ All of it registers someplace.”

Of betrayal and religion

That itch to push past the extraordinary is a Taniparthi household trait. Her father, Srinivas Rao – an enormous sports activities fanatic – combed newspapers for summer season camps his personal childhood by no means supplied.

“Naanna (father) didn’t have any such services when he was rising up, so he was eager to make sure that I had entry to all that, inside our means.”

At school, Chikitha tried her hand at a large number of choices together with volleyball, badminton, basketball and kho kho. However Srinivas wished his youngster to pursue a person self-discipline. In direction of that finish, she earned a black belt in karate. However archery was destined to be the one to stay with.

“Workforce sports activities are riddled with politics. Since archery is a person sport, no matter we do is instantly seen and we do what we do for ourselves.”

The yr was 2018. Chikitha’s uncle, on her father’s request, had bought her a recurve bow from Decathlon with which she educated behind her home, capturing at haystacks. Ultimately, she and some of her classmates went to the Police Coaching Heart to try to discover a coach to show them. There, somebody requested her to change to a compound bow and took cash from Srinivas for a similar, solely to vanish with out a hint.

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Upset however not disillusioned, the daddy and daughter persevered with the game. Chikitha moved away from recurve and in the direction of compound.

“Recurve bow wants plenty of observe and energy. You have to prepare each single day. In the event you return after resting for a number of days, you’ll see so many modifications and should rework all of it. With compound, I might prepare for 2 hours every within the morning and night. It wanted the archer to set themselves mentally and maintain getting higher.”

The subsequent pursuit turned attempting to buy a compound bow, however the COVID-19 pandemic arrived quickly after.

Girls’s Compound Archery staff members Prithika Pradeep, Chikitha Taniparthi and Jyothi Surekha Vennam who received the Gold Medal on the Asian Video games at Aichi- Nagoya, Japan, September 30, 2026.
| Photograph Credit score:
R.V. MOORTHY

“Our courses all went on-line, so I might prepare each day. At that time I didn’t know what a nationwide medal was, however I wished to win one.”

“Throughout Covid, my father had arrange a goal and a 50m path so I might shoot. He would go to the sector each morning. My brother and I’d go working each morning alongside the perimeters of our subject. That’s once I turned actually match. In actual fact, my father additionally joined us and improved,” Chikitha recalled. “Ultimately I left for Sonipat, and my father settled again into the duties of the home. The household’s health streak type of snapped there.”

Srinivas pushed past his means to assist his daughter’s dream. He even bought the household’s paddy harvester. In the meantime, YouTube movies fashioned the bedrock of Chikitha’s technical base, and one of many archers she grew to idolise – Abhishek Verma – would change into her mentor.

Ultimately, the District Collector’s workplace sanctioned funds for a compound bow. As she seemed for a coach and a very good coaching centre, Chikitha chanced upon the contact particulars of My Selection Archery Retailer, an gear outlet run by Abhishek and his spouse Sonali in New Delhi.

Guiding gentle

“I bought her quantity from the store they run and I knew she was Abhishek anna’s spouse. He and his coach (Lokesh Chand Pal) agreed to take me in for coaching on the Yamuna Sports activities Advanced for 5 days.”

This was in August 2021. Because the world discovered a option to open up once more, so did Chikitha’s prospects as an archer. Her uncle chipped in with funds for the journey to the capital.

There, Abhishek instructed Srinivas to go away Chikitha’s well-being to him.

The primary objective was a sub-junior medal.

“I didn’t know a lot about archery, however I used to look at Abhishek anna’s movies and verify with my father if I used to be getting issues proper. Anna then instructed me that my power was good, however he modified my anchor method. Within the mornings, he used to let me shoot 50-100 arrows. Within the evenings, there could be no capturing. We simply educated holding the bow and arrow in place. This was to develop persistence. I learnt all my fundamentals there on the Yamuna Sports activities Advanced.”

Chikitha entered the senior nationals in preparation for the sub-junior occasion and bought a really low rating there. Her mentor had notes, and the pair ultimately struck off the primary field in what would change into a protracted guidelines of turfs to beat.

She then participated in choice trials to make it to the Sports activities Authority of India’s Nationwide Centre of Excellence in Sonipat. There, coach Vivek Kumar took her underneath his wing. “After my father, he’s the one individual I divulge heart’s contents to after tournaments and cry with,” Chikitha stated.

Sahil Jadhav, left, and Chikitha Taniparthi through the medal ceremony for the compound combined staff archery occasion on the 2026 Asian Video games in Nagoya, Japan.
| Photograph Credit score:
PTI

“In 2021, I used to be in Hyderabad for the Nationwide Rating Archery Event. Abhishek instructed me that there was a proficient woman I ought to meet. Her father introduced her to the resort we have been staying in. This woman was so small and frail. I requested her if she wished to go to Sonipat. She nodded in settlement, however there have been tears too,” Vivek instructed The Hindu.

Nonetheless, he persevered. “If a participant like Abhishek recommends somebody, you can not ignore that. He instructed us she would change into a very good archer like Jyothi Surekha.”

Abhishek, it turned out, was proper. The parallels between Chikitha and Jyothi are countless. Each are introverts by nature, content material to shuttle between the coaching subject and the health club. Each comply with directions to the letter, even when meaning capturing 300-odd arrows, and each are at all times early, rain or shine.

ALSO READ | Indian archers hit the bullseye with three gold medals at 2026 Asian Games

Vivek remembers Chikitha clinging to her father till the second they parted. Slowly, Sonipat received her over. By night time, she had discovered the braveness to make a request: biryani. The coaches understood how arduous it’s for somebody from South India to maneuver to a eating regimen the place rotis reign, they usually indulged her.

Any doubts about her potential evaporated on the trials forward of the 2022 Asian Video games. She missed qualification however completed a commendable seventh, sufficient to persuade her coaches that she might be formed into an athlete who would make India proud on the worldwide stage.

Chikitha’s causes for liking archery are threefold. “First, as a result of, as my dad wished, it’s a person sport. Second, archery is a sport the place I can focus and focus with no distractions. Third, Anna instructed me, ‘You’re a champion, and you’ll proceed to be.’”

Others’ religion in her sowed the seeds of Chikitha’s ambitions; formal coaching is instructing her to nurture them herself. That course of has not been with out its hiccups. In 2024, Chikitha struggled to position among the many prime 16 and misplaced motivation mid-season.

“That interval was a wrestle and I couldn’t settle for it. Earlier than the nationwide video games, I wished to get chosen, however I used to be nowhere close to the highest. I used to be working with excessive poundage, and I stated if I hit any extra (capturing arrows), I’d get injured. I didn’t really feel like capturing. It took me a while to get better from that. I went to Tirupati, tonsured my head, prayed very arduous,” she recalled.

“I’ve to get Abhishek anna the Asian Video games plushie. I would like to have the ability to purchase one other harvester for my father. The World Championships are subsequent yr. World Cups are there after which the Olympics are there in 2028. Anna instructed me to method every little thing step-by-step and never put every little thing on my thoughts and take stress. Anna and Jyothi akka are constant faces within the Indian staff. I would like to have the ability to try this too.”Chikitha Taniparthi

By way of each hardship, Chikitha by no means as soon as considered abandoning archery. When her first substantial prize cash arrived, after the 2023 Nationwide Video games in Goa, she spent it on arrows, stockpiled for observe. A contemporary set each few months is her concept of a deal with.

“It isn’t in regards to the cash; it doesn’t matter so long as the outcomes come my method.”

It’s taken a village to get Chikitha out of Peddapalli and onto the world stage. Even efforts to look at her favorite Mahesh Babu on OTT is a household exercise. OTPs for streaming apps will come from siblings practically 1500km away. When she comes house for a number of days from time to time, there isn’t any TV for the household to unwind with collectively. She returns to a giant household welcome, the open paddy fields and a progressively managed anxiousness of lacking coaching.

Ask Chikitha what she is happy with and, together with the golds, she might point out the reward of deep sleep. Thunder can rattle each window, however she is going to slumber on.

“I don’t get sleep solely when ideas come to me, which occurs when every little thing is silent.”

Then she went to Japan and have become the lightning. Whether or not or not she slept by the aftermath, India didn’t. Two golds flashed throughout the sky, and a sport that thought it knew its stars blinked within the glare.