Learning to let go: How Neeraj Chauhan found his way to the Asian Games podium

For years, Neeraj Chauhan returned from the World Cup with nothing to show for his efforts. He was still competing, training and constantly watching other archers stand on the podium. Somewhere along the way, the question began to weigh on him: when would it finally be his turn?

At 23, Neeraj was hardly a novice in international archery. He’s been to nine or 10 World Cups where he’s competed against the best in the sport. However, the medals remained out of sight. For an athlete who knew he could compete at such a level, the repeated disappointment was difficult to ignore.

“I had already competed in nine or 10 World Cups before this but I came back empty-handed. I watched other athletes win medals and saw how much was being done for them and how much support they were getting. I was thinking when will I win a medal,” Neeraj told IndiaToday.in in an exclusive interview.

There was no shortage of motivation. He needed a way to turn his abilities into results.

Frustration surfaced after India’s World Cup campaign in Spain ended in a quarter-final defeat. Neeraj turned to Dhiraj Bommadevar, one of India’s established archers, and asked a question that had been on his mind for some time.

“Bhaiya, when will I stand on stage?”

Dhiraj’s answer was simple. The right time and opportunity will come, he told Neeraj. Until then, he had to practice and stop worrying about the results.

Easier said than done. Competing at a similar level to the medal-winning archers, Neeraj couldn’t help but wonder why the results weren’t coming. She insists it wasn’t jealousy. It was a nagging feeling that something was missing in his own game. Dhiraj Bommadevara and Neeraj Chauhan competed in the men’s team archery event at the 2026 Asian Games. (Image: PTI)

“You feel something inside when you see everyone else competing well. I was competing at the same level, so I wondered why I wasn’t getting the same results. It wasn’t exactly jealousy, but I felt that there must be something missing in my game somewhere.”

He could continue to dwell on missed opportunities. Instead, he began to look at his own performance differently. The focus has shifted from wondering when he will win to understanding what he needs to do better.

“So I said to myself, I’m going to work even harder, focus on what I’m doing and put the results aside. After that, things started to fall into place.”

It was a gradual change that eventually affected his approach to the sport.

TRUST THE SHOT

For Neeraj, improving as an archer was not just about identifying mistakes and correcting them. In fact, his approach was almost the opposite. He wanted to understand what he was doing when the arrows landed where he wanted, and then learn to repeat those actions.

Before, a bad shot could occupy his thoughts for too long. If the arrow landed in a six, he would think about it and worry about what went wrong. This allowed him to carry over from the previous shot to the next when his attention had to be focused on what was ahead.

His thinking changed.

“In archery, there are times when you can score a six and there are times when you can score a 10. You never know what the conditions are going to be like or what can happen during a competition. So I focus more on the things that help me shoot a 10. I focus on what’s going right and what I need to do to keep shooting a 10,” he said. Neeraj Chauhan was no longer worried about the results. (Image: APL)

Rather than letting a mistake dictate his next move, Neeraj tries to identify what worked and reproduce it. He learned to pay attention to the process instead of getting consumed by the result.

The change didn’t happen overnight. Repetition in practice helped, as did conversations with Dhiraj and his coach.

“They always tell me that whatever I do, I should do it with joy and stop thinking too much about the outcome,” Neeraj said.

This advice became especially important when he experienced the pressure of a major tournament.

During the semi-finals of the Asian Games, Neeraj found himself in unfamiliar territory. It was the first time he had reached this stage, and his heart rate skyrocketed. He managed to win the match, but the experience left him searching for answers.

Once the game was over, he called his coach, who pointed out that he was thinking too much about the result and not enough about what he had to do.

That resolution mattered. Neeraj had to bring his attention back to the actions that would help him shoot well rather than getting caught up in the significance of the occasion.

He carried these instructions into his next match. Even though he lost, he felt more confident. When it came time to compete alongside Dhiraj in the bronze medal match, he reverted to the same approach.

The opponent was a South Korean archer who won Olympic gold. It was the kind of competition where reputation alone could make the challenge daunting. However, Neeraj began to find confidence in his own arrows.

“When I shot my first arrow and hit a 10, and then my second arrow hit a 10, I thought if I could shoot two tens, I could do it again. Then I shot the third ten. I started thinking I could shoot a perfect 30.”

Conditions were far from ideal. It was windy, a little rainy, but Neeraj reminded himself that both archers were dealing with the same weather.

“He’s not a machine and neither am I,” he said, explaining how he approached the competition.

Instead of worrying about who was standing across from him or how the other archer might perform, he focused on what he needed to do with his own shot. One arrow after another he tried to give his best.

It was a practical application of a lesson he had been learning for months. He could not control the opponent, the weather or the final score. But he could control where he focused his attention.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

The improvement in Neeraj’s approach was not just the result of individual efforts. The training camps have helped the Indian archers bond and the team’s improved bonding has given it a stronger support system.

Dhiraj’s participation was also important. Neeraj approached him with doubts. At the time when Asian Games medal matches They came, worked together and supported each other in difficult situations.

“We started enjoying every moment. Whatever the situation, we stood together as a team. We supported each other and discussed what was happening and what needed to be done. That helped us perform well,” said Neeraj. Neeraj Chauhan was part of the Indian men’s archery team that won silver at the 2026 Asian Games. (Image: PTI)

After the semi-final, he also had to make sure that the result did not distract him from the team event that was yet to come. Of course, winning the match brought good luck, but the tournament didn’t end there.

“Of course I was happy after winning the match, but I reset because the tournament was still going on. We had to focus on the team semi-finals, so we trained for that.”

He put the individual event behind him and concentrated on the next task. There was no point in spending too much time celebrating one result when another challenge awaited.

For an archer who had previously dealt with missed opportunities, this ability to move on was as important as technical work. A good shot had to be followed by another. The victory had to go by the wayside when it was time to prepare for the next match.

And when the medal finally arrived, Neeraj knew exactly who he wanted to thank.

“When I won my first medal, the first thing I did was thank my teammates because they supported me so much. I also thanked the whole archery community.”

The happiness was unlike anything he had experienced before. After so many World Cups without a medal, this achievement meant more than he could explain.

“I’ve worked so hard for this. When you finally achieve what you’ve worked for, you have to be happy. I can’t explain how happy I was.”

He called his coach and family back home. Everyone was delighted. Their response was immediate: they wanted him to come home.

“They were all very happy. They were saying, ‘Just go home now,'” he recalled.

For Neeraj, the medal was the result of years of work, but it also belonged to the people who stood by his side when the results weren’t coming.

THE SACRIFICE OF THE FAMILY

Neeraj’s journey in archery started auspiciously. In 2018, he won a medal at the Senior National Championship, where he competed in the Indian wooden bow round. His family was delighted. Then came the pandemic, his father lost his job and the family faced financial difficulties.

They started selling vegetables to make ends meet. His father headed to the mandi early in the morning to bring the produce while Neeraj and his brothers helped with the work. Through it all, his father made sure the training continued.

“We really had no other option. Father knew that we also had to continue exercising, so he started going to the mandi early in the morning to bring vegetables. We helped him with the work,” said Neeraj.

There were days when the family had to make sacrifices. Neeraj remembers how he tried to convince his father to rest, but his father never allowed the children to feel that they did not have what they needed.

“He always encouraged us to train. Sometimes he ate less himself, but he made sure we got a full meal.”

That was left to Neeraj. If his family was giving all they could to support him, he felt they had to give even more in return.

“When we thought about how much our family does for us, we felt that if they give 100 percent for us, why can’t we give 110 percent?”

Archery wasn’t even a sport he started out with. Before taking up the bow, Neeraj followed his elder brother into the box. Their boxing coach noticed his focus and suggested he try archery. His father talked to the coaches and they managed to arrange money for the equipment.

Neeraj doesn’t know exactly what the coach saw in him. However, he remembers that when he first tried archery, he felt he would be good at it. His interest grew, he earned an all-state selection and then medaled at Nationals.

The family began to see that this sport offered him a future. Neeraj moved to the Sports Authority of India center in Sonipat and continued to work on the next step. He was selected for the 2022 Asian Games but could not compete before returning to the international circuit via the World Cups.

The medals took longer to arrive than he had hoped. Still, his family never pressured him to achieve. Even after his breakthrough at the Asian Games, their message remained essentially the same.

“I was always told there would be ups and downs,” he said. “Even now when we talk, they tell me not to be too happy with what I’ve accomplished. They say, ‘Whatever happened, happened. What’s the next goal now?’

His parents closely followed his progress. His father learned about sports when he worked as a cook in a sports hostel where he was around wrestlers, boxers and cricketers. His mother now watches Neeraj’s competitions on TV and tracks his results.

Sometimes he asks her who he competed against that day, only to find that she already knows how the match went and how many points he won or lost. He laughs at how much he watches sports.

Meanwhile, his father advises him to take a few days off before the tournament so his body can recover. Their involvement grew as his career progressed, but their support was never dependent on him bringing home a medal.

It made all the difference to Neeraj. The pressure to win never came from his family. Instead, they reminded him that setbacks are part of the sport and that there is always another goal to work towards.

At the age of 23, he has already experienced the long wait for a breakthrough, the doubts that follow repeated defeats and the happiness of finally getting the result he wanted. He’s still learning. He still has work to do.

But the question that once troubled him after every failed World Cup began to give way to others. Rather than wondering when his turn will come, Neeraj learns to focus on the shot in front of him.

For archers, this may be the most important change of all.

– The end