Sheetal Devi at the Asian Para Games 2026
Sheetal Devi goes to the 2026 Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, as the reigning world champion and world No. 1 in women’s compound para archery. The archery events run from 19 to 24 October, and she is defending the two titles she won at the last Asian Para Games in Hangzhou: the women’s compound individual and the compound mixed team.
Her teammate in the compound women’s event is Payal Nag, who beat her in the Bangkok Para Series final in April. The mixed team will look different. Rakesh Kumar, her partner for gold in Hangzhou and bronze in Paris, finished fourth at the selection trials in Sonipat and missed the squad. The compound men selected are Toman Kumar and Shyam Sunder Swami, and she has won a mixed team gold with each of them this year. Sheetal topped those trials with 1398 points.
This profile will be updated with her results during the Games.
Sheetal Devi’s 2026 season
Sheetal has reached the individual final at all three stages of the new World Archery Para Series so far. She finished second in Bangkok and Nove Mesto, then won the title in Ahmedabad in September, the first time India hosted a stage.
In Ahmedabad she topped the ranking round with 698. With Rakesh Kumar she also set a world record of 1400 in the compound mixed team ranking round, one point better than the 1399 the pair shot at the Paris 2024 Paralympics. Her individual final against Kazakhstan’s Aizada Seidan finished 144-144, and Sheetal won the shoot-off. She added mixed team bronze with Toman Kumar.
World champion in Gwangju
On 27 September 2025, at the World Archery Para Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Sheetal beat Turkey’s Oznur Cure Girdi 146-143 in the compound women’s final, closing the match with three straight 10s. It reversed the result of the 2023 world final in Pilsen, which she lost 140-138, and made her the first woman without arms to win a para archery world title. She also took silver in the women’s doubles and bronze in the mixed team.
Hangzhou gold and a Paralympic medal at 17
At the Hangzhou Asian Para Games in October 2023, aged 16, Sheetal won mixed team gold with Rakesh Kumar and doubles silver with Sarita. In the individual final she trailed Singapore’s Alim Nur Syahidah after three ends, then shot six 10s in a row to win 144-142. That made her the first Indian woman to win two gold medals at a single Asian Para Games.
At Paris 2024 she scored 703 in the individual ranking round, one point short of the world record set in the same round, but lost her round of 16 match 138-137 to Chile’s Mariana Zuniga. She bounced back to win mixed team bronze with Rakesh Kumar and, at 17, became India’s youngest Paralympic medallist.
Sheetal Devi’s career highlights
- 2023, World Archery Para Championships, Pilsen: silver, women’s compound individual
- 2023, Asian Para Games, Hangzhou: gold, women’s compound individual; gold, compound mixed team; silver, women’s doubles
- 2024, Paris Paralympics: bronze, compound mixed team
- 2025, World Archery Para Championships, Gwangju: gold, women’s compound individual; silver, women’s doubles; bronze, mixed team
- 2026, World Archery Para Series, Bangkok: gold, women’s doubles (with Payal Nag); gold, mixed team (with Toman Kumar); silver, individual
- 2026, World Archery Para Series, Nove Mesto: gold, mixed team (with Shyam Sunder Swami); silver, individual
- 2026, World Archery Para Series, Ahmedabad: gold, individual; bronze, mixed team; mixed team ranking round world record (1400)
From Kishtwar to world No. 1
Sheetal was born on 10 January 2007 in Loidhar, a village in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir. She was born with phocomelia, a rare condition that left her without arms. A Rashtriya Rifles unit of the Indian Army noticed her as a child and helped with her schooling and medical care.
She later joined the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board archery academy in Katra, where coaches Kuldeep Vedwan and Abhilasha Chaudhary started her in the sport. Prosthetic arms were ruled out, so the coaches studied the American archer Matt Stutzman, who shoots with his feet, and built her technique around that idea. She draws the bow with her right foot and shoulder and releases the arrow with a trigger held in her mouth.
She now trains in Patiala under national coach Gaurav Sharma, often shooting 250 to 300 arrows a day. She received the Arjuna Award for 2023 from President Droupadi Murmu in January 2024, and World Archery named her Para Archer of the Year for 2025.
For another Indian archer who made history this season, read the profile of Kumkum Mohod, the Asian Games 2026 recurve champion. Avani Lekhara is also in India’s squad for the Asian Para Games in Aichi-Nagoya.
Updated 13 October 2026. Sources: World Archery (India squad), World Archery (Gwangju 2025), Asian Paralympic Committee, All India Radio (Bangkok 2026), The Bridge (Nove Mesto 2026), The Bridge (Ahmedabad 2026), ESPN (Hangzhou 2023), ETV Bharat, The Sentinel, Swarajya and Wikipedia.
