Purnima Mahato's Olympic Dreams: Sacrifice, Struggle, and Hope

Purnima Mahato, an archery coach with a three-decade career, has dedicated her life to training athletes for the Olympics, often at the cost of family time. Her children, Siddharth and Archisa, grew up with her mostly absent. As she prepares the team for the Paris Games, Mahato hopes to finally secure the elusive Olympic medal.

Purnima Mahato didn't even know when her son Siddharth and daughter Archisa turned 17 and 10 because of her demanding career as an archery coach. Despite feeling guilty as an absentee mother, her dream of seeing one of her trainees stand on the Olympic podium kept her going.

'We have everything but an Olympic medal. Archery has become life for me. My children grew up on their own and I didn't even realise,' Mahato, a Dronacharya Awardee, told PTI in an exclusive interview. 'I hardly got to spend any time back home. My son was less than a year old when I left, now he's preparing for his 12th standard board exams. My daughter is 10. They have sacrificed more than me for this medal,' she added emotionally.

Better equipped at handling emotional stress, Mahato is concentrating on her team for the Paris Games, urging her archers to focus on the process over results. 'Medal layenge, medal layenge yeh baat tum dimaag se nikal do,' she tells her team, emphasizing emotional control. Veterans like Deepika Kumari and newcomers Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur have all shown promise, securing top world rankings. With a proven record in Paris, the Indian team aims high this Olympics.

(With inputs from agencies.)