Archery: How para archer Sheetal Devi embraced who she is to find international success

At a clinic in Bengaluru, in 2021, Sheetal Devi was asked a simple question. Her answer was even simpler.

As she waited to get the fitting done for a pair of prosthetic arms, she was asked what was the first thing she wanted to do with her new arms.

She wanted to wear chudiya (bangles).

Now 16, Sheetal was born without arms because of a condition called Phocomelia.

As it panned out, she would never really use the prosthetics. Instead, she embraced who she was. And in late July, she became the first armless woman to win a medal at the World Para Archery Championships, clinching silver at the event in Pilsen, Czech Republic.

It was only a few weeks after that trip to Eastern Europe that she managed to grasp the magnitude of what she had achieved. And even then, as she looked back, she is still not sure how she pulled it off given that she was competing at the tournament while being in and out of hospital.

“It feels really good [to have won a Para World Championships medal],” she said to Scroll, with a giggle, over the phone from her training base in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir.

“I was so sick, I kept thinking how am I going to...

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