Majhi: from a school bully to Olympian

'Close to realising my dream'

Laxmirani Majhi's journey as an archer will intrigue and interest at the same time. From being a bully during her school days to a potential medal-winning archer, who along with Deepika Kumari and Bombyala Devi will form the Indian troika at the Rio Games, Majhi's life has come full circle.

"It's been a satisfying journey. Once I started competing on a professional level, it was my dream to play the Olympics and now I am very close to realising it," she says expressing her satisfaction on making it to the Rio Games.

While Majhi's dominant nature is very evident when she has bow and arrow in her hands, outside the shooting field too things aren't much different. And she credits this nature to the environment she has been brought up in.

"I have been like this since my childhood," she points out. "I think I have learnt a lot from my father. He used to work in the coal mines at Mosabani (in Jharkhand) with his main job being that of blasting the rocks to find new ways to dig deeper into the mine. That's a really tough job where your life is hanging by a thread. I think the way he's gone about in his life is what has made me the person I am today," she tells you.

While Deepika and Bombyala have prior experience of shooting at the quadrennial extravaganza, for the archer from Jharkhand, this will be her first appearance at the Games. She, however, betrays few nerves.

"Why should that bother me? Yes, it's my first Games. But haven't there been cases where people have won a medal in their first Games too?" she asks.

"It's not necessary that you have to participate in a few Games before you can win a medal. It all depends on who performs well on a given day."

Majhi's foray into archery is an interesting story. A naughty student, by her own admission, at the Sidhu Kanhu High School in Narwa, Majhi would prefer to spend more time outside than inside her classroom. And it was in one such attempt to avoid classes that the then seventh-grader joined a handful of students that Dharmendra Tiwari randomly picked when he was on a scouting tour for the TATA Archery Academy.

"Back then I didn't know who Tiwari sir was. One day, he walked into our class and asked who would be interested in archery. I think, I was the first one to raise my hand," she recalls.

Though the young Majhi's initiation into the sport wasn't encouraging, with time the two have gone on to stitch an inseparable bond.

"Initially it wasn't that good," she notes. "I didn't know what archery was, I saw it as an opportunity to get out of the class. Well, athletics too was an option but then running and jumping for a long period... That wasn't much appealing. At the archery academy when I saw my seniors shoot, that too didn't seem interesting. But later when I shot a few arrows, God it was so much fun. The first time when I hit the yellow, I couldn't sleep the whole day," elaborates Majhi.

Of the three archers, Majhi is known for shooting maximum '10s' on a consistent basis. While some think that it's a natural talent, the world number 15 believes it is the combination of her natural talent and hard work that has helped her to be this consistent.

"It does come naturally to me. But then again, I practice on my skills too. It's more like a mixture of both the God-gifted talent and my hard work."

These skills will be put to sternest test yet when she draws her arrow at the Games of the 31st Olympiad.