GWANGJU, South Korea (Diya TV) — Sheetal Devi, a 19-year-old archer from Loidhar, Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, won the compound women’s world title at the Gwangju 2025 World Archery Para Championships on March 16, 2026, becoming the first armless woman in history to be crowned world para archery champion and India’s first ever individual para archery world champion.
Devi was born on January 10, 2007, with phocomelia, a rare congenital condition resulting in the absence of arms. She beat defending champion Oznur Cure Girdi of Turkey 146-143 in the final. The contest was tense throughout. The first end was tied at 29 apiece, but Devi fired three tens in the second end to take an early lead, winning it 30-27. After the third end was also tied at 29 apiece, her only slight lapse came in the fourth end where she scored 28 as Girdi took it by one point, yet Devi still held a two-point lead at 116-114. She sealed the gold with a flawless final end, hitting three perfect arrows for a score of 30. The final was a rematch of the 2023 Pilsen World Championships, where Girdi had narrowly beaten Devi. This time, Devi reversed the result.
Devi uses her legs to hold the bow, with the string sitting between her big toe and second toe. She uses her mouth to notch arrows to a special device attached to her shoulder, and draws the arrow back using a combination of stretching her leg and the muscles on her chest and shoulder. In 2025, an international rule change on grip positioning meant the bow could no longer touch the heel, forcing her to shoot using only her toes, causing significant pain and requiring her to relearn her technique almost entirely from scratch with a new coach.
Devi’s introduction to archery came after the Indian Army’s Rashtriya Rifles unit spotted her potential and facilitated her participation in Operation Sadbhavana initiatives. Coaches Abhilasha Chaudhary and Kuldeep Baidwan, who had never trained an armless archer before, researched the technique of American armless archer Matt Stutzman and began her training. Within just 11 months, Devi competed at the 2022 Asian Para Games, winning two gold medals and a silver.
At the Paris 2024 Paralympics, she won a bronze medal in the compound mixed team event alongside Rakesh Kumar, becoming India’s youngest Paralympic medallist at just 17. A few weeks after becoming world champion in September 2025, she also booked her spot in India’s junior able-bodied archery team for the Asia Cup Stage 3, becoming the first armless athlete selected for India’s mainstream national archery team. Devi is also the recipient of the Arjuna Award, which she received from the President of India in January 2024.
