Her story is one of perseverance and utmost dedication. She is Aditi Swami, the 17-year-old daughter of a government school mathematics teacher from Satara and the youngest-ever senior world champion and the first Indian to win an individual compound gold medal at the World Archery Championships.

Aditi trains at an academy located within a one-acre sugarcane field.

Less than two months after she won the junior world title, Aditi defeated Andrea Becerra of Mexico 149-147 in the compound women’s final in Berlin on Saturday.

Her family moved to Satara city from a village 15 kilometres way so Aditi could have access to sports facilities. Her father Gopichand took up a job as a mathematics teacher in the city. Gopichand, was extremely passionate about sports and wanted his daughter to play at least one sport.

“It was the major reason why I left the village. I thought she would have more opportunities in the city,” he told The Indian Express on Saturday.

When she was about 12 years old, Gopichand took her to the city’s Shahu Stadium and tried to introduce her to various sports. There were some kids playing football, and some training for athletics but a small group in a corner, setting up their targets and adjusting their arrows, captured Aditi’s attention. 

Gopichand enrolled her in that coaching program and got home thinking nothing of it. “She was quite thin and didn’t like sports which were seen as physical.I think she liked archery as it’s a sport where one has to be extremely calculative,” Gopichand said.

Soon he saw that Aditi was spending more and more time at the sugarcane-field academy of her coach Pravin Sawant. Aditi would train three hours on week days and more than five hours on weekends. Gopichand too encouraged her, showing her videos of archery stars — 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Deepika Kumari and Asian Games gold medallist Abhishek Verma.

The coach told him that she was getting better but if she wanted to get to the next level, she would need to buy her own bow.

“One professional bow, a good one, costs almost Rs 2.5 lakh. She had to buy arrows costing almost Rs 50,000. There was no way I could afford that. That was the first time I had to ask people for a loan,”

Just as she got her own bow, the Covid-19 lockdown was enforced meaning that Aditi couldn’t go to her training centre. She decided to practice in the area outside her house.

“There’s some open space where she set everything up, ensuring that she doesn’t miss a day of practice. In fact, she hasn’t missed a single day of practice since the time she took up the sport. Even on Diwali, she will celebrate in the morning, but by afternoon, she’s back at training,” he said.

It was immediately after the lockdown, when tournaments were being held after a gap of a year, that Aditi started to produce good results in the tournaments. While that was great for her, it also meant that Gopichand had to shell out more money for her to travel to tournaments. He also had to ensure she had whatever equipment she needed. More loans were taken. And they kept piling up, totaling more than Rs 10 lakh.

“More than half of my salary goes into paying off the loans. My wife is a government servant and contributes too. But I don’t mind being in debt. I know that Aditi is capable of doing very well for India. I’m sure she will continue her form at the Asian Games next month,” Gopichand said.