Who is Sheetal Devi? The archer who shot 703 with her foot!

New Delhi: If you are asked that what is the most difficult part of competitive archery is? It is holding the heavy bow to shoot the arrows. Holding the heavy bow does not require any innate skills, it just needs a hand which can lift the bow.

Well, that set of actions might be true for most of the people around the world. However, things are a bit special for 17-year-old archer Sheetal Devi. The teenage girl lifts the heavy bow with her foot to shoot the arrows and has been touted as a generational talent in para archery in the country and worldwide.

Born with a rare disease called Phocomelia, Sheetal Devi was born without arms. However, despite all hardships, Sheetal has faced every adversary with a smiling face. She recently smashed the record charts to set a new mixed compound world record of 1399 with her partner Rakesh Kumar.

Furthermore, she also scored the second-best score in individual as she scored 703 points. This was bettered by Turkey’s O. Cure, who got 704 points.

Who is Sheetal Devi?

Sheetal Devi was born on January 10, 2007, in the small village of Loidhar in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. Being born without any arms, she knew that her life would be a little special as well as difficult at the same time. Subsequently, she found interest in the sport of archery from a young age.

Her knack for archery and talent in the sport was first discovered by the Indian Army’s Rashtriya Rifles unit in 2019 which helped her obtain financial help for her education and medical treatments. Meanwhile, she was trying out everything under the sun to continue her archery. But for archery one needs the basic to hold the bow. However, in the case of Sheetal, prosthetics were not possible as was told by the doctors.

She then took upon the challenge to shoot the arrows using her legs. Interestingly, she even climbed over a tree to show the capability of her legs. Subsequently, the coaches were convinced of her ability and strong willpower and structured her shooting posture based on the way American para archer Matt Stutzman used to shoot.