Destiny's Child: The rise and rise of Sheetal Devi
From learning everyday skills with her feet to becoming a world champion, the para-archer has defied odds
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Prefer us on GoogleLast Updated: Jan 15, 2026, 12:08 IST2 min
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Sheetal Devi (18) Para archer
Ask Sheetal Devi what reminds her most of home, and she doesn’t talk of a grand memory. She simply says: Rice. It was what she grew up eating each day in Loidhar, her small mountain village in Jammu & Kashmir. Rice meant routine, comfort, and childhood—a reminder of where she started long before she became a Paralympic medallist and now a world champion.
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Born with phocomelia—a congenital condition that left her without arms—Devi grew up far from the world of sports. She learnt to eat, write, climb trees and move through the world with her feet. “Back then, I didn’t think it was anything special,” she says. “But, later, I realised those things helped build balance, strength, independence which became the foundation of the athlete I am today.”
Sport was never her dream. In fact, she once wanted to be a teacher. All of that changed in 2021, during a medical visit to Bengaluru that failed to give her the result she had desired. “My own plan failed,” she says, “but God’s plan didn’t. He kept connecting me to the right people.”
During an assessment, a physiotherapist suggested her to try sports and recommended three disciplines, including archery. She resisted for quite some time. “I come from a place with zero exposure,” she says. “There was nothing in my childhood that prepared me for sports.”
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She wasn’t convinced at first, but meeting para athletes changed everything; if they could do it, she believed she could too. And criticism only pushed her further. “Some said I was lazy. Some said I was stubborn. Some even said I was being given a dream that would only break me,” she recalls. “But I didn’t want to prove them wrong; I wanted to prove to myself that I could, and I wanted to give my best.”
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The beginning in archery was slow and taxing. Her only reference was the world’s first armless archer, Matt Stutzman, but, in India, there was no one. Relentless training followed: Building core strength, balance, and the basics of lifting and controlling a bow with her feet. The rise that looked sudden from the outside was built on months of struggle and small breakthroughs.
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2025 brought another challenge as World Archery changed its rules, and Devi had to rebuild from scratch. Her coach, Gaurav Sharma, saw this battle closely. “Training Sheetal meant rebuilding everything from scratch,” he says. “But her zidd (stubbornness), that fire inside her, never let her give up.”
That resilience has left an indelible mark on those guiding her journey, including Olympic Gold Quest, which has supported her since she was 15. “Sheetal never complains—about life, challenges or tough situations,” says OGQ CEO and former India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha. “Her courage and positivity have taken away our own right to complain.”
That stubborn resolve powered her through the 2024 Paralympics, where she became India’s youngest Paralympic medallist; in 2025, she became World Champion at the World Para Archery Championships. The year also saw her ranking third in national able-bodied trials—one of her earliest dreams. “I had a small dream when I started,” she says. “To, one day, shoot alongside able-bodied archers.”
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Despite her success, Devi still identifies with who she was before fame. She skips most events, chooses training over appearances, and keeps her ambitions simple: Grow, learn, improve. “A bad day for me is the day I don’t practice,” she says.
First Published: Jan 15, 2026, 12:17
Subscribe NowSiddhant Konduskar is a sub-editor and writer at Forbes India. He enjoys exploring stories at the intersection of business, entertainment, pop culture, trends and the environment, with a focus on the
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