Sheetal competing in her first Paralympics shot 26, while Zuniga, the silver medalist from Tokyo 2020 shot 27 to edge the past of the Indian by One Point. Though Sheetal devi lost by just one point in the paralympics, she has contributed to the game and the country marvelously. Sheetal India’s armless archer Sheetal Devi finished second in the ranking round of the women’s individual compound open archery event to advance directly to the round of 16 at the Paris 2024 Paralympic.
Sheetal Devi, who was born without arms and uses her legs to shoot, logged a score of 703 out of 720 surpassing the previous ranking round world record of 698 set by Great Britain’s Phoebe Pine Paterson earlier this month. The 17-year-old Indian para archer, however, finished behind Turkey’s ├Цznur C├╝re, who set a new world record in the ranking round with 704. She won a bronze medal in this paralympic.
Sheetal Devi could face Tokyo 2020 Paralympics silver medalist Mariana Zuniga of Chile in her opening round. The Chilean para archer, who placed 15th in the ranking round, will be up against Choi Na Mi of the Republic of Korea, who finished 18th in the rankings, in the round of 32.
About Sheetal Devi
Sheetal Devi was born 10 January 2007, Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir is an Indian para-archer. She was born with a rare medical condition called phocomelia causing her to be born without arms. She is the first and only international para-archery champion without upper limbs. At the 2022 Asian para games, Devi received two gold medals in mixed doubles and women’s individual after winning a silver medal in women’s double compound. She proceeded to receive the Arjuna award 2023.
Career and achievements
In the youth event organized by Indian army, the army coaches Abhilasha Chaudhary and Kuldeep Wadhwan noticed her confidence and decided to train her. Firstly the coaches wanted to help her with prosthetics, but doctors said that prosthetics were not possible in her case. Devi surprised the coaches by saying that she was fond of and has expertise in climbing trees using her legs.
The coaches had never trained a person with no arms for archery before. However they did some research and learnt about Matt Stutzman , who was armless and used his legs for archery. This gave them confidence, and within 11 months of training, Devi had participated In the women’s compound bow at the 2022 Asian para games, and won two gold medals for India. Devi received two gold medals, in mixed doubles and women’s individual, after winning a silver medal in women’s double compound. Devi is the first and only international para-archery champion without upper limbs. Devi became the youngest person to compete in women’s para archery at 2024 Summer Paralympics She was a favourite with crowd who were disappointed when she was eliminated. Devi had 312,000 Instagram followers at the time.
Awards
| Best youth Athlete of the year (2023) | Asian Paralympic committee |
| Arjuna Award (2023) | Government of India |
Sheetal Devi Emotional Story
