It is hard to think this now, but Dhiraj was right on the verge of leaving the sport for good. The troubles life had thrown at him seemed to have crushed his dreams of representing India.
In those very same trials, though, a certain Kim Hag Yong was quietly watching.
Hag Yong was a coach for Olympic Gold Quest, a non-profit organisation in India that prioritises training and sponsorship for athletes trying to compete and win at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Dhiraj may not have booked himself onto the India team for Rosario that day, but something about him stood out to Hag Yong – something he could not ignore.
So much so that he invited him to train at the Olympic Gold Quest base for archers at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, over 800 kilometres west of his hometown of Vijayawada.
It was a surprising golden ticket for Dhiraj. Olympic Gold Quest usually provides its scholarships to athletes who have already won at least one international medal, .yet Hag Yong saw enough in the teenager to make an exception.
“He really liked my technique, my shooting, and also he saw how I’m shooting with all different arrows,” Dhiraj recalled. “I hadn’t shot once for my country yet, and they said, ‘Coach Kim really liked you, he wants to train you for the Olympics’.”
The opportunity would provide Dhiraj with a monthly sponsorship of 15,000 rupees – around 150 US dollars at the time – as well as covering his expenses and equipment.
For a family struggling with debt, it changed everything.
“I just thought it’s a really great deal for me because if I go to Pune there is no expenses for me, so all the 15,000 I can earn, I can give it to my family so that my family can recover slowly because at that time we also had some debt,” he said.
Then came the simplest explanation of why he went.
“Throughout my life, archery is the only thing I have, so I thought let’s just get to Pune to train with coach Kim and train there.”
