Just days after delivering a fighting performance at the Paris Olympics, 24-year-old Indian table tennis player Archana Kamath made a surprising decision to call time on her career. Despite helping the Indian women’s table tennis team achieve its best-ever Olympic result by reaching the quarterfinals, Archana, according to Indian Express, informed her coach, Anshul Garg, that she no longer saw a future in professional table tennis.

Instead, she expressed a desire to pursue higher education in the United States, questioning the viability of continuing in a sport where financial rewards are minimal, and the chances of winning an Olympic medal seemed increasingly remote.

Archana’s journey to the Paris Olympics had been anything but smooth. Her selection over Ayhika Mukherjee, who had been in exceptional form, sparked controversy. However, Archana silenced her critics by playing a crucial role in India’s historic run at the Games. She also managed to secure India’s lone victory against Germany, defeating the much higher-ranked Xiaona Shan.

Yet, Archana seemed distant from the prospect of achieving further milestones: particularly an Olympic medal. The lack of money in the sport added to her woes.

Despite the support of organizations like TOPs and Olympic Gold Quest, paddlers' earnings are negligible unless they reach the semi-finals in domestic and international tournaments. For Archana, this reality made continuing in the sport seem unfavourable of her long-term future.

Additionally, her ultimate goal had been to win an Olympic medal, which seems a distant read. The reality of competing in a sport long dominated by Chinese players, with only a handful of nations occasionally challenging their supremacy, made her reconsider her future.

Passion for academics

Recognising her academic strengths, Archana decided that pursuing education abroad was a more viable long-term plan, marking a significant shift in her life.

“Archana has always been academically oriented and all along her TT career has pursued her studies with graduation in Economics and has recently completed the requirements for a Masters degree in International Relations, Strategies and Securities. Having played table tennis with so much dedication and passion for more than 15 years which culminated in her representing our country at the Olympics, she felt it’s time for her to pursue her other passion- full-time studies. She has taken this difficult step with absolutely no regrets and after having given her best for the sport and the country,” Archana's father, Girish Kamath, told The Indian Express.

Massimo Costantini, the national table tennis coach, expressed worries over India losing one of its top TT talent, insisting that the situation urgently demands a “stronger system” for athletes to build a career in the sport.

“When I saw Archana competing, I thought, Ok, we have won another tile in our mosaic of Indian table tennis players. I was aware of her always thinking about academics. It didn’t surprise me much but I understand her decision,” says Costantini.

“We need to create a stronger system to make sport a career. We have also to think about how to preserve and guarantee a brighter future for sportspersons who are giving a part of their life to play for the country.”

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