| Sheetal Devi | |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Birth Date: | 10 January 2007 |
| Birth Place: | Loidhar, Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, India |
| Parents: | Mann Singh (father), Shakti Devi (mother) |
Sheetal Devi (born 10 January 2007) is an Indian Para-archer.[1] Devi was born with a rare medical condition called phocomelia,[2] which makes her the first and the only international para-archery champion without upper limbs.[3] She received the Arjuna Award 2023 from the Droupadi Murmu on 9 January 2024.[4] She is currently supported by OGQ.
In the women's compound bow at the 2022 Asian Para Games,[5] Devi received two gold medals in mixed doubles and women's individual after winning a silver medal in women's double compound.[6]
She was born in Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2019, Sheetal attended a youth event in Kishtwar where she was noticed by the Indian Army's Rashtriya Rifles unit resulting in the Army supporting her education and providing medical assistance.[7]
In the youth event organized by Indian army, the army coaches Abhilasha Chaudhary and Kuldeep Wadhwan noticed her confidence and decided to train her. As she was born with Phocomelia, she had no arms. So firstly the coaches decided to help her with prosthetics. But the medics said that prosthetics were not possible in her case. Here, she said that she was fond of and has expertise in climbing trees using her legs. This was a very pleasant surprise for the coaches. Now coaches had one more challenge to face, they had never trained a person for archery who has no arms. But coaches did some research about whether it was possible to train her, and eventually they came to know about Matt Stutzman, who was armless and used his legs for archery. This made coaches very confident and within 11 months of training, Sheetal Devi participated in Asian Para Games and won two gold medals for India.[8]
| Year | Award | Awarded by | Result | References | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Best Youth Athlete of the Year | Won | [9] [10] | ||
| 2023 | Won | [11] |