This 17-year-old winner of the World Archery Championship has made her passion into a profession

For world champion Aditi Gopichand Swami, excelling at archery wasn’t just a personal choice but a duty to honour the sacrifices her family made, and to ensure that they were worthwhile

Her undying devotion to K-dramas aside, it seems Aditi Gopichand Swami is far from ordinary. This remarkable teenager is the current world champion in archery. All of 17 years old, she is not just the first Indian to have nabbed the first individual gold at compound archery at the World Archery Championship in Berlin in August this year, but is also the youngest player ever to achieve this extraordinary feat. 

Ever since her monumental win, there has been no stopping Swami. At the recently concluded Asian Games held in Hangzhou, she secured the bronze medal at individual playoffs and a gold medal with fellow archers Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Parneet Kaur. Naturally, Swami has been promptly dubbed the “next big thing” and a “breakout star”. 

Swami, however, remains unfazed by the thunderous clamour around her. She is aware her success has been anything but overnight. She dedicates at least four days every week to archery practice, while the rest of the days are reserved for school. "On days I have to practise, I am at the grounds by 8:30 am, and I train for a few hours before heading back for lunch.” Some rejuvenation later, she trains for another few hours till 7 pm. After a full day of practice, she unwinds by catching up on her studies, and sometimes, a few K-dramas. 

Despite its seemingly low-impact nature, archery demands rigorous physical training. So beyond shooting practice, archers are required to dedicate several hours everyday to strength training, muscle building, and agility practice.  

Coach Pravin Sawant, who has been mentoring Swami since she was 10 years old at his Drushti Archery Academy in Satara, Maharashtra, underscores how it was her unwavering discipline that convinced him to bring her under his wing. 

“Aditi, like any other 10-year-old, did not have the physical strength to train in archery when she approached me in the beginning. As a coach, you need to not just prepare your students, but you also need to keep in mind that they do not suffer injuries. But Aditi kept showing up for practice every day, dedicating as much time as was needed to perfect her form, which convinced me that she possessed the dedication and grit to take up sports professionally,” says Sawant.

“Stone Cold Swami”

Archery is unlike any other adrenaline-pumping sport. On the podium, there’s no grunting, sweating, or grimacing. No cinematic moment of dripping sweat in slow motion, furrowed foreheads or cries of pain. Instead, there’s laser focus—a stillness that feels almost meditative. In their stance, the players have their arms stretched out and their gaze affixed on the target. The tension in the bowstring is all the action you get to witness. 

Swami has quickly become the embodiment of stillness on the podium, so much so that a commentator in Berlin referred to her as “stone cold Swami” after her astonishing victory at the World Archery Championship 2023. 

“I am not sure how I am so calm at the podium. It has never really been intentional. Just that when I am on the ground, all my focus is on my target. Incidentally, I feel it happens quite spontaneously, where nothing else but the target matters to me,” shares Swami. 

Melding academics and athletics

Her hermit-like stillness extends much beyond the podium. Currently studying science in class 12, Swami admits while she needs to catch up on her syllabus, it’s not enough to break a sweat. This is because, she says, “In all honesty, in our household, my brother and I have never been pressured about academics too much.” Despite her father, Gopichand Swami, being a teacher, her family has always believed in a more holistic approach towards education, extending beyond calculus and Shakespeare. “It was because of them that I have guiltlessly been able to focus on my archery practice.”

Swami’s school Lal Bahadur Shastri Maha Vidyalaya too, she acknowledges, has been an immense support for her in terms of preparing her before examinations. “Many a times, because of my demanding schedule, I am unable to attend classes. Just so that I can sit for my exams, my teachers take separate extra classes during my available hours and help me complete my syllabus,” she adds.  

Early beginnings 

Globally, the resurgence of interest around the sport can be squarely placed on pop culture, specifically the release of The Hunger Games in 2012, decades after The Lord of the Rings made archery ‘cool’.  In fact, there were reports of numerous young American women enthusiastically enrolling in archery, inspired by Katniss Everdeen (portrayed by Jennifer Lawrence in the film series), one of the protagonists of The Hunger Games. Moreover, thanks to Marvel's superhero Hawkeye— who handles cosmic threats and high-tech baddies with his trusty bow and arrow—and Disney's Princess Merida, who shoots arrows without a ‘quiver’ in her body in Brave, the arrow reached new heights of cultural relevance around the world. 

For Swami, however, the choice to pursue sports did not stem from emulating fictional characters and on-screen idols. Her father, who is a mathematics teacher by profession, saw sports as an opportunity for her to build a better life. 

“Because I’m an educator myself, I know the importance of education as well as sports. We witness so many incidents of people not finding jobs despite their many educational qualifications, just because there aren’t enough opportunities here [in India]. I felt if Aditi picks up a sport and performs well along with her studies, she would be able to secure a job under the sports quota. And hopefully, builds a comfortable life for herself," says Gopichand Swami. It's a somewhat jarring—maybe even distressing—reminder that middle class aspirations are firmly tethered to pragmatism.

From passion to profession

The first few years of Swami’s professional career were mired with sweat, tears, and occasional disappointments. “For the first two years that I was playing, I was not getting selected above the district level. The competition was tough, and even if I were to make my mark, there was no option to go beyond the nationals,” she says.  

This was in 2017, and it was Sawant who suggested she make a shift from the Indian bow to compound archery. In compound archery, the bow has more structural rigidity, which means an archer would not need to exert as much pressure to operate a compound bow as opposed to a recurve bow. 

For the next six months, there was no participation in competitions for Swami, because “I was very weak,” she admits, her wisdom and self-awareness much beyond her years. “My only focus was on strength training. But in 2018, I won my first national tournament. It was unexpected, to say the least, but I managed to bag a silver medal.”

The win shifted something fundamental within Swami. Not that she hadn’t won medals before. In fact, a year into training, she was already representing Maharashtra in an inter-school competition. But the 2018 nationals win cemented her confidence in herself. “I think it was at this point that I realised that archery was not just a passion for me; I want to make it into a career.”

But passion wasn’t the only factor motivating Swami.

“When I wasn’t performing too well during the first year of my training, all I kept thinking about are the sacrifices my parents are making daily—financial and otherwise—to enable my life. When you come from a middle-class background, and your family invests a lot in your education or pursuits, it adds a sense of responsibility [within you]. You feel driven to do your best and make sure that their sacrifices are worth it. That's what goes through my mind when I'm out there, playing.”

Further, securing financial aid seems like a distant dream for sportspersons starting out in India. “It’s ironic that when you most need support to grow, it can be scarce. It's usually only when you gain significant recognition on a national or even global level that you can perhaps start to anticipate financial assistance from state and central governments,” she explains.

Not just financially, players are also expected to make do with limited infrastructural support. For example, Swami is required to travel all the way from Satara to Sonipat or any other Sports Authority of India centre in the country to access indoor practising facilities. 

“With the potential inclusion of compound archery in the Olympic Games, it’s imperative that we have indoor practising grounds, among other facilities. We also require a greater number of training institutes throughout the country to reduce the burden on players who currently have to travel extensively just to practise,” says Swami. 

Between shuttling from the grounds to school to home to competitions, Swami has not only become an inspiration for young women around the country, but also her younger brother Aditya, who has already followed his sister’s footsteps into archery. The household brims with medals and certificates, but the young Swamis are more concerned with their sibling rivalries and beating each other at the sport. 

“He gets so jealous of me when I get praised or lauded,” chuckles Swami. And in a fleeting moment, one can't help but notice that beneath her remarkable wisdom and unwavering self-assuredness, she retains the innocence and simplicity of a child.

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