Chikitha Taniparthi wins two golds at 2026 Asian Games, secures Olympic quota for India
Chikitha Taniparthi became India’s first double gold medallist at the 2026 Asian Games, winning the women’s compound team and mixed team events at Aichi-Nagoya, Japan on September 30, 2026. The soft-spoken archer from Peddapalli, Telangana, also featured in a mixed-team shoot-off that secured an Olympic quota for India for LA 2028.
Raised in a modest farming family, Chikitha is described in reports as extremely shy and reluctant to embrace the trappings of stardom; she has no competition-day playlists or earphones and cites a desire to become India’s most decorated archer. She says films have influenced her mindset: “There was a movie Ram Charan did last year called Game Changer. After watching that – and it usually happens when I watch certain films – I thought, what should I do or learn from this? I myself should change the game where I am,” and added, “Now, everyone says, whatever rank Chikitha is in, she will somehow change the game and come up. Similarly, I watched a film called Biker, where the message blared, ‘No fear.’ It all registers somewhere.”
Her father, Srinivas Rao, a self-described sports enthusiast, scoured newspapers for summer camps he never had as a child and pushed Chikitha toward an individual sport; he recalled: “Naanna (father) didn’t have any such facilities when he was growing up, so he was keen to ensure that I had access to all that, within our means.” Chikitha experimented with volleyball, badminton, basketball and kho kho at school, earned a black belt in karate, and ultimately gravitated to archery.
In 2018 an uncle bought her a recurve bow from Decathlon and she practised behind the family house, shooting at haystacks before seeking a coach at a Police Training Center; an early attempt to switch to compound involved a person who took money from her father and then vanished. Chikitha described the technical choice between bows: “Recurve bow needs a lot of practice and power. You need to train every single day. If you return after resting for a few days, you’ll see so many changes and will have to rework it all. With compound, I could train for two hours each in the morning and evening. It needed the archer to set themselves mentally and keep getting better.”
The COVID-19 period allowed her to maintain daily practice as classes moved online; her father built a target and a 50m path, and the family ran together to boost fitness. Financial strain followed: Srinivas sold the family’s paddy harvester to support her, while YouTube and Abhishek Verma became central to her technical development; the District Collector’s office later sanctioned funds for a compound bow. In August 2021 she trained at the Yamuna Sports Complex after Abhishek Verma and coach Lokesh Chand Pal agreed to take her on for five days, with Abhishek advising Srinivas to leave Chikitha’s well-being to him.
Chikitha’s early competitive path included a low score at senior nationals, selection trials for the Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellence in Sonipat, and coaching under Vivek Kumar, whom she identifies closely: “After my father, he is the only person I open up to after tournaments and cry with.” Vivek recalled meeting her after a 2021 tournament: “In 2021, I was in Hyderabad for the National Ranking Archery Tournament. Abhishek told me that there was a talented girl I should meet. Her father brought her to the hotel we were staying in. This girl was so small and frail. I asked her if she wanted to go to Sonipat. She nodded in agreement, but there were tears too.” Observers have compared Chikitha to Jyothi Surekha in temperament and training habits, noting both are introverted, follow instructions closely and undertake high arrow volumes.
Setbacks included missing qualification for the 2022 Asian Games after finishing seventh at trials and a difficult 2024 season when she struggled to reach the top 16 and briefly lost motivation: “That period was a struggle and I couldn’t accept it. Before the national games, I wanted to get selected, but I was nowhere near the top. I was working with high poundage, and I said if I hit any more (shooting arrows), I might get injured. I didn’t feel like shooting. It took me some time to recover from that. I went to Tirupati, tonsured my head, prayed very hard.” Her first meaningful prize money arrived after the 2023 National Games in Goa, which she spent on arrows: “It is not about the money; it does not matter as long as the results come my way.”
Chikitha won women’s team gold alongside Prithika Pradeep and Jyothi Surekha Vennam at Aichi-Nagoya and partnered with Sahil Jadhav in the mixed-team shoot-off against Korea that clinched the second gold and India’s LA 2028 Olympic quota. She has said she wants to reward supporters—“I have to get Abhishek anna the Asian Games plushie. I want to be able to buy another harvester for my father.”—and outlined a competition calendar she expects to target: “The World Championships are next year. World Cups are there and then the Olympics are there in 2028.”