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The 21-year-old Chikitha hails from Telangana's Sultanpur village in Peddapalli district. She was initially interested in karate but was persuaded by her father Srinivasa Rao to become an archer. Her first love with archery was when she was a child and a bow presented by her uncle on the occasion of Dasara, which made her aspire for a career in archery. She fondly recollects, "It was a Dasara holiday. My uncle who lives in Hyderabad, bought a recurve Decathlon bow. I tried it just for fun. We used to shoot just for fun at that time," she recalled.

Chikitha said that her father was the driving force behind her archery career, making significant financial sacrifices, including taking loans and selling a rice harvester, to fund her training. She said she was inspired by Saina Nehwal’s Olympic success stating, "After Saina Nehwal won an Olympic medal, he decided that I should play another sport (archery, instead of karate)."

Legendary Archer Abhishek Verma trained Chikitha at the SAI Centre in Sonepat, shooting 300 arrows daily. Chikitha said: "I didn't get into archery on my own. It was my father's choice. He wanted me to play sports because he couldn't play any sport. When I was small, he used to take us to playgrounds. Every day we used to play some games," she recalled, after what can be described as a smashing debut. In school, from 6th grade till 8th grade, I was doing karate. I got my first black belt also," said Chikitha.

Once he realised that Chikitha has potential, her father Srinvasa Rao took a loan to buy her upgraded equipment that could shape her better. She started pursuing archery more seriously in 2018 and was picked in the junior camp in 2021. Rao eventually also sold the family's rice harvester to fund her archery training. He took her to a nearby town to train with a local archer and built makeshift targets at home.

After losing Rs 1.5 lakh in a fraud while trying to buy her first compound bow, he took another Rs 3.5 lakh loan for new equipment. Her performances later earned her a government-funded bow from the district Collector.

On the question of handling pressure, Chikitha said, the golds this morning had also eased the pressure that she had built on herself in the past few months.

"Personally, I have been struggling this past year, facing some difficulties. After becoming World champion last year, it became very difficult for me to perform at the same level. I was struggling with my shooting aim. I worked really hard and I got back to the first team," she said.