Tarundeep Rai (born 22 February 1984, in

Namchi Namchi is a city and the administrative headquarter of the Namchi district in the Indian state of Sikkim. The appellation Namchi means ''Sky (Nam) High (Chi)'' in Sikkimese. Geography Namchi is located at . It has an average elevation of . ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligu ...

, India) is an Indian

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

. He is conferred with the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

, in 2021, by the Government of India, for his contribution in Sports. Earlier, in 2018, he was awarded the Khel Ratan Award.

Career

Tarundeep made his debut in international archery at the age of 19 years when he played at the Asian Archery Championship 2003 held at

Yangon, Myanmar Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

. Tarundeep Rai won India their maiden individual silver medal in archery at the Asian Games at the

16th Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), was a regional multi-sport event celebrated from November 12 to November 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, although several events ...

on 24 November 2010 in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong ...

, China. He was a member of the Indian archery team that won the bronze medal at the

15th Asian Games 15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 and preceding 16. Mathematics 15 is: * A composite number, and the sixth semiprime; its proper divisors being , and . * A deficient number, a smooth number, a lucky number, a pernicious nu ...

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the c ...

in 2006. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Tarundeep was placed 32nd in the men's individual ranking round with a 72-arrow score of 647. He faced Alexandros Karageorgiou of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

in the first elimination round, losing 147-143. This score gave Rai a final ranking of 43rd. Rai was also a member of the 11th-place Indian men's archery team at the 2004 Summer Olympics. A career-threatening shoulder injury forced him to lie low for the best part of two years. He suffered a right shoulder injury due to overuse and was out of action in 2007 and 2008.Tarundeep Rai did not make the men's team at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. only competed in the individual event. But he got into rhythm and clinched a silver medal, which none of us expected. Tarundeep was a member of the Indian men's recurve team at the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Tarundeep Rai gave the country the third place in the London Olympics qualification round at Ogden, US in 2012. Tarundeep was a part of the Indian archery team that finished 4th at the 2003 World Championship in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. His team won the silver medal at the 2005 World Championship in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. He also became the first Indian to make it to the semifinal round of the World Archery Championship in 2005, where he narrowly lost to Won Jong Choi of South Korea by 106-112 for the bronze medal play-off. Tarundeep Rai won three gold medals at South Asian Games in Guwahati and Shillong. Tarun also played a key role in India's dominance in the South Asian Games.

Awards

Tarundeep is recipient of the Arjuna Award (2005) for his achievements in archery. in 2020, the government of India honoured him with the

, the fourth highest civilian awards in the

Republic Of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Tokyo Olympics

Tarundeep Rai along with

Atanu Das Atanu Das (born 5 April 1992) represents India in the recurve men's individual and team events. His current world ranking is 9 as of 22 July 2021. He is the spouse of World No. 1 Indian archer Deepika Kumari. Career Das started archery at the ...

and Praveen Jadhav grabbed the quota for the tokyo olympics. Since the lockdown happen he choose to be in AsI campus and train for his last olympics. He has Reduced 14 kg weight in 6 months. Tarundeep Rai alongside his teammates defeated Kazakhstan in round of 16 in the men's team event before losing to Republic of Korea in the Quarter Finals. In the individual event, Tarundeep defeated

Oleksii Hunbin Oleksii Ihorovych Hunbin ( uk, Олексій Ігорович Гунбін; born 8 November 1992 in Sumy, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian archer. He represented Ukraine at the 2020 Summer Olympics in men's individual and mixed team competition. He won ...

of Ukraine 6-4 in the 1st round before losing to

Itay Shanny Itay Shanny (born 1 September 1998) is an Israeli archer. He represented Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics competing in the men's individual event. Shanny was seeded 60th out of 64 in the ranking round. That rank placed him against 5th seed ...

of Israel in the 2nd round in a thrilling one arrow shoot-off.

References

External links

Ready, Aim, Aspire...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rai, Tarundeep 1984 births Living people People from Namchi district Sportspeople from Sikkim Indian Gorkhas Indian male archers Archers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic archers of India Archers at the 2006 Asian Games Archers at the 2010 Asian Games Archers at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for India Asian Games bronze medalists for India Asian Games medalists in archery Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Archers at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for India Commonwealth Games medallists in archery Recipients of the Arjuna Award Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Rai people Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games