Daughter of a simple milkman did wonders in the Olympics, know how Ankita Bhakat rose from rags to riches

The Olympics in Paris leaked out; still, a bit before that started, all eyes turned toward Indian female archer Ankita Bhakat. In the women's individual recurve archery event at the Qualification of the Olympic Games in Paris, Ankita performed so unbelievably great that she shot her way to the 11th position. However, it wasn't an easy road for Ankita to reach the Olympics. Her father used to sell milk and the family lived on his income. Even on a shoestring budget, she turned her interest in archery into a passion, and today Ankita is waving the flag of India at the Olympics.

Ankita, a resident of Kolkata, took up archery as early as at the age of 10 years. Little Ankita attended a local archery competition held in Kolkata's Circus Ground. However, at that time she neither had the right equipment nor experience. But she didn't give up and began practicing archery by borrowing local city club equipment.

Ankita's hard work paid off and in 2014 she got admission to the Tata Archery Academy. She honed her skills under the leadership of Jamshedpur coaches Dharmendra Tiwari, Purnima Mahato, and Ram Awadhesh. In 2015, at the age of 18, Ankita participated in the World Archery Youth Championship in Yankton, USA on behalf of the Indian team.