She also went on to be the flagbearer for Bhutan in the opening ceremony in 2016. In 2016, she received one of the universality invitations for the Rio Games. “Getting the quota spot has motivated me to train more and harder.” It is not that Karma will be participating at the Olympics for the first time. “I have worked really hard and trained daily – both physically and mentally – since the time I qualified for the Olympics,” says Karma, a member of Bhutan’s four-member contingent for the Tokyo Games. On Friday, Karma scored a total of 616 (personal best) in the women’s individual ranking round, finishing 56th, while Deepika finished 9th with a score of 663. Karma will face India’s ace archer Deepika Kumari in the first round of the women’s individual event at the Yumenoshima Park on July 28. She booked her berth in women’s individual recurve competition during the Asian continental qualification tournament in Bangkok in 2019. Archer Karma became the first-ever athlete from the country to get an Olympic quota spot in any sport. This time, though, there was something different in store for the Himalayan nation. With the number of these tickets being reduced from three per gender at Rio 2016 to two at Tokyo, there was no certainty that Bhutan would continue to receive a free quota. Universality invitations are awarded to smaller or developing sporting nations to ensure diversity at the Games. The little rider being that they always received universality invitations. Bhutan is poised to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo, but curiously, the country has competed in every Olympic archery tournament since Los Angeles 1984. Known as ‘Dha’ in the Himalayan kingdom, archery, their national sport, holds unique significance for the population and is an integral part of its cultural legacy. For a nation that measures welfare through happiness, Bhutanese are happiest shooting arrows in the sun.
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