In its fifth year of activity, the Paralympic Games They gave viewers one of the great stories of the competition: the consecration of Sheetal Devithe 17-year-old Indian woman who excelled in archery and stole all the spotlights of the afternoon. Due to a rare congenital disorder called phocomelia, the young woman has no arms. However, since 2021 he has been practicing the discipline and this Monday he took home a medal bronze in the mixed category and, despite having been eliminated in the individual event, was one of the stars of the day.
In her first Paralympic performance, Devi achieved a score of 703 out of 720 and surpassed the world record of the previous qualifying round of 698set by Britain’s Phoebe Pine Paterson this month. Later, Turkey’s Oznur Cure broke the record again and qualified with 704 points.
With an impressive technique, the athlete places the arrow in the bow with her right foot, lifts the instrument with her leg, He pulls the string with his shoulder and releases the arrow using the strength of his jaw.
In the round of 16, Devi could not face the Chilean Mariana Zúñiga and was eliminated from the competition by a tight 138-137. However, It was the Indian who took all the applause for an extraordinary shot to the center of the target to achieve a 10.
This was not the only feat of Devi on Monday afternoon. Finally, he won the bronze medal together with his compatriot Rakesh Kumar in the mixed categoryThey beat the Italian pair of Eleonora Sarti and Matteo Bonacina in the duel for third place.
In this way, at only 17 years old, the Indian She became the youngest Paralympic medalist in her country’s history.
The incredible story of Sheetal Devi, the young woman who dazzled everyone at the Paralympic Games
With a perfect 10, Sheetal Devi achieved enormous visibility this afternoon at the Paralympic Games. However, the young woman of just 17 years of effort to reach the world’s top competitiondespite the difficulties that his physical condition at birth had posed.
Since she was a child, Devi enjoyed climbing trees, which allowed her to strengthen her upper body. Years later, during a youth event organized by the Indian Army, The coaches discovered a great capacity in the young woman to perform the sport.
He inspired his technique in Matt Stutzmanan armless American archer who used his legs to shoot and who won a silver medal at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
The young Indian quickly rose through the ranks in her sport and, using her legs instead of her arms, adopted an unconventional technique and began to shine on the international stage. In 2023, she won the gold medal at the Asian Para Games in China; last year, she was also awarded the best youth athlete of 2023 according to the Asian Paralympic Committee. and as the outstanding female Paralympic archer of the season, according to World Archery.
In an interview with Fit India Movement, the young athlete admitted that she initially did not know how to shoot a bow: “I always thought that I should not practice archery. Everyone at school did it with their hands and I didn’t know at all what I had to do. or how I had to do it with my feet. Until I found the solution”.
Source: Ambito
