India’s hope for gold at the Paralympics: 17-year-old archer Sheetal Devi is one of the best in her sport worldwide. And that despite having no arms.
Sheetal Devi was born to be an archer, say people close to her. But the conditions for the Indian athlete could hardly be more difficult. She was born with the rare disease phocomelia and therefore has no arms since birth. But that doesn’t stop the 17-year-old from pursuing her passion. Quite the opposite.
Devi has her own special way of drawing the bow. First, she picks up an arrow with her foot. She wears a belt around her chest, in which she straps the arrow over her right shoulder. After Devi has aimed at her target, she jerks her upper body backwards and shoots the arrow. It flies towards the target, which is about 50 meters away – and usually gets stuck near the middle.
At the 2022 Asian Para Games, Devi hit the ten mark six times in a row, the highest score in archery, to win gold. Last year, she took silver at the World Para Archery Championships in Pilsen, Czech Republic, beating Turkey’s Öznur Cüre, making her the first armless archer to win a medal at the World Para Championships. At the time, Devi had been playing the sport for just 11 months. As runner-up at the World Championships, she qualified for the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. And she has even bigger goals there.
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The young athlete trains hard for her success. A video about Sheetal Devi’s story shows how she shoots arrow after arrow, runs up stairs, trains her legs in the gym – sometimes until late in the evening. Devi’s ambition pays off. The Asian Paralympic Committee voted her the best young athlete of 2023. She also received the Arjuna Award for outstanding achievements in sport from the Indian government.
She now wants to achieve the next success in her young career at the Paralympics. The Indian competes in the open class with a compound bow, where she is currently number one in the women’s world rankings. “I am motivated to win gold,” the BBC quotes Devi as saying. “When I see the medals I have won (so far), I feel inspired to win even more. I have only just started.”
The Paralympic Games in Paris begin on August 28 with the opening ceremony at 8 p.m. and end on September 8. 4,400 athletes from 184 delegations are taking part in the competitions. Sheetal Devi is one of them and, despite her young age, has a realistic chance of winning a medal.
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Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
