Who is Pravin Jadhav? All you need to know about the Indian archer who will be competing at Paris Olympics 2024
Indian archer Pravin Jadhav is all set to represent the nation at the Paris Olympics 2024. The Summer Games would be the athlete’s second appearance at the quadrennial event after making his Olympic debut during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Born to a family of daily wage laborers, Pravin hails from Satara in Maharashtra. Though he is now a renowned name in the world of archery, the sport was not the youngster’s first choice.
As a kid, Pravin was inclined towards track and field sports and wanted to be a sprinter. He participated in several track and field events at the district level while growing up.
However, it was a stroke of fortune that saw the budding athlete enter the world of archery. During a drill at the Krida Prabodhini hostel in Ahmednagar, Jadhav threw ten out of ten balls in a ring from a distance of ten meters, which saw him get selected. He was then recruited by the Army Sports Institute in Pune and from then, he never looked back.
Pravin Jadhav, who was on the path to joining his family as a daily wage laborer at a construction site, turned over a new leaf and went on to become a successful archer from there on.
A look at Pravin Jadhav’s achievements over the years
Pravin Jadhav first tasted success on the world stage by winning the bronze medal with the men’s recurve team at the 2016 Asia Cup Stage 1 in Bangkok. He then went on to win a silver medal at the 2019 World Championships in Den Bosch, along with his teammates, Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai. This performance saw the Indian men’s archery team qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, which was their first qualification for the quadrennial event since the London Olympics 2012.
Pravin also topped the selection trials for the Tokyo Olympics going past the veterans Das and Rai by achieving a score of 2727 and winning six out of the seven one-on-one matches.
The 28-year-old will soon be competing in the men’s individual ranking round, starting July 25 in Paris.