India’s Best Female Archer in the Paralympics First Picked Up a Bow 2 Years ago...With Her Feet

The Paralympic games are running from August 28th until September 8th, 2024 and the first few days of competition have already culminated in some massive wins. The People's Republic of China is currently leading the world in Gold Medals, with a staggering 51 total awarded as of this writing: 24 Gold, 19 Silver, and 8 Bronze.

And while this is an impressive feat, for the country's collective efforts of China's individual participants, many viewers are cheering on a 17-year-old girl from India who is competing in archery.

That's because Devi was born without arms and has trained to become proficient in shooting a bow and arrow using her legs. What's even more impressive are the numbers she's been able to put up with her feet, toes, and shins.

During the women's individual compound open for archery, Devi beat the previous world record score of 698, which was attained by Great Britain's Phoebe Pine Paterson just a few weeks prior.

Devi nailed a 703, which would've put her at the top of the open ranking heap. However, she was surpassed by Turkey's Oznur Girdi Cure who secured a 704. Which also means Oznur is the current Paralympic world record holder for women's archery.

In addition to seeing Devi outperform many other archers who have full usage of both their arms and hands to hit their targets seated from a chair with her legs, there's another reason why viewers seem to be so enamored with her.

According to the BBC, it may have to do with her specific brand of swag as well. Upon delineating Devi's unique archery stance that allows her to be so surgically accurate with a bow and arrow, the media outlet penned: "what never changes throughout this process is Devi’s calm demeanour."

The same piece also writes that Devi has been excelling in the sport for quite some time: prior to competing in the global Paralympic games, the archer sat at the top of her division.

What's even more astounding is that Devi, who is only 17, first used a bow and arrow just two years ago. One of the teen's coaches of the national squad, Abhilasha Chaudhary, seems to believe there was some divine happenstance that brought the young woman into the sport: "Sheetal [Devi] did not choose archery, archery chose Sheetal," they said.

Devi says that her leg strength comes from years of using her feet to write and climbing trees with her pals and pretty much using her feet and legs the same way folks would use their arms, hands, and fingers.

And although she loved archery, Devi says she was initially intimidated as her "legs would ache" leading her to think the endeavor "was impossible."

She says she was inspired by Matt Stutzman, a US archer who also shoots with his feet. Unlike Matt, however, Devi couldn't afford a custom bow better suited to foot operation.

That's when her coach, Vedwan decided to work closely with a "local forge shop" to devise a specifically constructed bow mechanism suited to Devi's style of archery. Crafting a suitable bow was just the beginning, however — Devi's coaches needed to come up with a specific set of biomechanics Devi could adopt to use the new tool effectively.

After first practicing with a rubber band, hitting shorter distance targets, Devi became more and more confident in her skills. After a few months of sitting on a chair and flinging rubber bands at targets just 5 meters away, the teenager found herself at 2023's Asian Para Games. It was here she hit six consective 10s in a row, securing a gold medal.

And she hopes to do the same during 2024's Paralympic games.

India's paralympics coaching team must be doing something right, as Rakesh Kumar has proven himself a gold medal threat in the men's archery division as well.

But that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Rakesh's resume of accomplishments in the bow and arrow world.

In a close match-up that spelled some early trouble for Rakesh, the archer managed to lock in during a war of attrition with Indonesia's Ken Swagumilang. It was a razor thin victory for Rakesh, who then advanced to the quarter final.

Kumar shot opposite Canada's Kyle Tremblay during a peripatetic match up that, just like his previous match was decided by a hair advantage in the Indian athlete's favor.

Kumar now proceeds to the Semi Finals.