Aditi Ashok will be determined to make up for her near miss at the Tokyo Games while Diksha Dagar will try to overcome the trauma of a car accident as the two Indian golfers begin their campaign at the Paris Games on Wednesday. Two-time Olympic champion Aditi came very close to securing a medal before finishing fourth three years ago in Tokyo, and this time she will seek redemption. Diksha, on the other hand, escaped unharmed after being involved in a car accident that left her mother hospitalized. But the 23-year-old from Jhajjar has ignored all the problems and is determined for Olympic success.
A quarter of the field, meaning 15 of the 60 players, in the women’s Olympic golf competition have played in all three Games since the sport returned to the program in 2016 and Aditi is one of them.
Her teammate Diksha Dagar, who is making her second Olympic appearance, is one of 36 players in the field who has competed in at least one Olympics before this one.
Aditi plays Gaby Lopez (Mexico) and Esther Henseleit (Germany) at 9:22 am local time (12:52 pm IST), while Diksha plays Wei-Ling Hsu (Chinese Taipei) and Emma Spitz (Austria) from 10:55 am.
The women’s competition takes place from Wednesday to Saturday.
A first-time winner of her home event, the Hero Women’s Indian Open in 2016, Aditi has won five times on the Ladies European Tour but is still awaiting her first success on the LPGA. She has been on the LPGA since 2017.
Aditi’s big moment came in 2021, when she was one step away from an Olympic medal but finished fourth. Even though she missed out on a medal, she was appreciated by the entire country, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Diksha is a rare athlete, having competed in both the Deaflympics (Olympics for hearing-impaired athletes) and the main Olympics. A double medalist at the Deaflympics, Diksha qualified for Tokyo almost at the last minute. This time, his consistent performance in 2023 and 2024 earned him a spot months in advance.
In Paris, Diksha suffered an unexpected scare when the car in which she was traveling with her family, including her father, Colonel Narendar Dagar, who is also her caddy, met with an accident.
Although Diksha and her father were unharmed, her brother suffered some minor injuries. However, Diksha’s mother injured her back and had to be hospitalized. She is now recovering.
Aditi is coming off a tie for 22nd at the LPGA Tour’s Portland Classic, which ended last Sunday. She has played four weeks in a row since Amundi Evian and this is her fifth week in a row.
Aditi had her father Ashok in the bag in 2016 and then it was her mother Maheshwari transporting her to Tokyo. Her father, who was with her most of the time at the LPGA, will be on duty in Paris again.
In Tokyo, Nelly Korda (United States) won gold, while Mone Inami of Japan beat Lydia Ko (New Zealand) for the silver medal with a two-putt par on the first extra hole. Ko took bronze and India’s Aditi finished fourth.
At Rio 2016, Inbee Park (Republic of Korea) won gold, while Lydia Ko took silver and Shanshan Feng (China) was the bronze medalist.
So Lydia is the only player who has already won two medals and is looking for her third and first gold medal.
A total of 33 countries are represented in the field of 60 athletes. Twelve of the top 15 players are competing this week.
Six players who are or have reached world number 1 in the Rolex Rankings, Jin Young Ko (Korea), Lydia Ko (New Zealand), Nelly Korda (USA), Atthaya Thitikul (Thailand), Lilia Vu (USA), Ruoning Yin ( China) are among the players on the field.
Australia’s Minjee Lee will make his third Olympic appearance following his brother Min Woo’s Olympic debut in the men’s competition last week. The Lees are the only brother and sister combination on the Olympic golf courses.
Celine Boutier is one of two players representing France in the women’s Olympic golf competition, along with Perrine Delacour. Boutier had the best season of his career in 2023, where he achieved four victories, including a major championship, the Amundi Evian Championship, in his home country.
Before 2016, women’s golf was played in the Olympics twice in the early 1900s (1900 and 1904).
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