Indian archer Atanu Das shocked two-time Olympic champion Oh Jin Hyek in a nail-biting finish to make it to the 1/8 Elimination round in the men’s person archery occasion at the Tokyo Games 2020. Atanu, one half of India’s popular archery couple ‘Dee-Das’, is married to former world quantity one Deepika Kumari, who was seen cheering for her husband from the stands.
Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari’s appreciate story started in 2008, when they have been batchmates at the Tata Academy in Jamshedpur. Although they got married last year, they did not start off off at the academy as good friends.
“He didn’t know Hindi then, so he wouldn’t talk to me,” Deepika Kumari was quoted as saying on the official Olympics web-site.
As they got to know every other, they also dealt with “communication gaps, big egos and misunderstandings.”
“It was so random, childish fights blew up. Kuchh bhi cheez pe bachpanaa tha. (It was so childish that we could fight on anything). Something as small as ‘why did you take my bottle of water?'” Atanu Das recollected.
Even even though they each participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics with each other, they have been nevertheless far from dating every other. In 2017 – nearly a decade right after they 1st met – that the two archers have been struck by Cupid’s arrow. Indian recurve team’s heavy defeat in the 2017 World Championships in Mexico City, the two bonded more than a lot of soul browsing.
“We went shopping together and bonded well. All our misunderstandings, doubts and differences were ironed out,” Atanu Das told Times of India.
Keen to maintain their relationship private, they did not inform any of their teammates they have been dating. “We didn’t want the other archers and our teammates to know about it really so we kept it private. We only made it public around the time we got engaged in December (2018),” Atanu told ESPN.
Atanu Das And Deepika Kumari had planned to get married right after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. However, right after the Games got postponed by a year due to the pandemic, they changed their plans and got married on June 30 last year. It was quiet ceremony in Deepika’s hometown, Ranchi.
Today, Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das are the 1st Indian couple to take element in the exact same discipline in an Olympic Games. In reality, they are only the second married Indian couple to compete at the Olympics with each other – the 1st getting Vece Paes and his wife in the 1972 Olympics.