Deepika Kumari (born 13 June 1994) is an Indian professional archer. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the women's individual recurve event. She also won a gold there in the women's team recurve event with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi.[3] She won individual gold in two of the three stages of the World Cup—one in Guatemala and another in Paris. In the process she also reclaimed the number one ranking after nine years[4] at the Paris World Cup.[5] Deepika won individual gold medals at the Archery World Cup Stage 1.[6] She defeated Mexico by 5–1 in the final to win the gold in Paris.[7]
She was conferred the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award, in the year 2012 by then–President of IndiaPranab Mukherjee.[9] In February 2014, she was honored with FICCI Sportsperson of the Year Award.[10] The Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri, the country's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2016.[11]
Early life
Deepika Kumari was born in Ranchi, Bihar (now Jharkhand) to Shiv Charan Mahato, an auto-rickshaw driver, and Geeta Mahato, a nurse at Ranchi Medical College, and a native of Ratu Chatti village, 15km from Ranchi.[12] She belongs to a Kudmi Mahato family.[13][14]
As a child, she practised aiming for mangoes with stones.[15] During her early days it was difficult for her parents to financially support Deepika's dream, often compromising on the family budget to buy her new equipment for her training; as a result, Deepika practised archery using homemade bamboo bows and arrows. Deepika's cousin Vidya Kumari, then an archer residing at Tata Archery Academy, helped her develop her talent.
Deepika made her first breakthrough in 2005 when she entered the Arjun Archery Academy at Kharsawan, an institute set up by Meera Munda, wife of Jharkhand's chief minister Arjun Munda. But her professional archery journey began in the year 2006 when she joined the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur.[16] It was here that she started her training with both the proper equipment as well as a uniform. She also received ₹500 as a stipend. Deepika returned home once in her first three years there, only after having won the Cadet World Championship title in November 2009.[17] Kumari has long been seen as the one to finally get India its first medal in archery.[18]
Personal life
Deepika married archer Atanu Das on 30 June 2020.[19][20][21] Their daughter, Vedika, was born in December 2022.[22]
She won the 11th Youth World Archery Championship held in Ogden, Utah, United States in 2009, at the age of fifteen. She also won a gold medal in the same competition in the women's team recurve event, alongside Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi.
Deepika Kumari of India (Gold), Alison Jane Williamson of England (Silver) and Dola Banerjee of India (Bronze) during the 2010 Delhi Archery (Women's Individual Recurve) medal presentation ceremony at XIX Commonwealth Games.
At the Delhi Commonwealth games 2010, Deepika won two gold medals, one in the individual event and the other in the women's team recurve event. For this, she was honoured with the Outstanding Performance at CWG (Female) Award at the 2010 Sahara Sports Awards ceremony.
Later at the Asian Games of 2010, held in Guangzhou, China, Deepika missed out on a medal after she lost to Kwon Un Sil of North Korea in the bronze-medal play-off of the women's individual archery event. But as a part of the Indian archery recurve team, along with Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee, Deepika edged out Chinese Taipei 218–217 in the bronze play-off to ensure a podium finish at the Aoti Archery Range.
In May 2012, Deepika Kumari won her first World Cup individual stage recurve gold medal at Antalya, Turkey. She beat Korea's Lee Sung-Jin by six set points to four in the final.[24] Later in 2012, she would go on to become world no. 1 in Women's Recurve Archery. In London Olympics 2012, Deepika Kumari lost against Amy Oliver of Great Britain in the opening round, attributing a relatively poor performance to fever and high winds.[25][26]
On 22 July 2013, she won the gold medal in Archery World Cup stage 3 held at Medellin, Colombia where India finished fourth.[27] On 22 September 2013, Deepika lost 4–6 to Yun Ok-Hee of South Korea & settled for silver medal in 2013 FITA Archery World Cup. This was her 3rd Silver medal in as many appearances in the World Cup Final.[28]
In 2014, Deepika was featured by Forbes (India) as one of their '30 under 30'.[26] However, she failed to make the Indian team for 2014 after finishing outside the top 4 at the national qualifications.[29]
In 2015, Deepika's first medal came at the second stage of the World Cup, where she won a bronze in the individual event. At the World Championships in Copenhagen, she won a team silver along with Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly, after narrowly losing out on a gold in a match against Russia which they conceded 4–5 in a shoot-off. In the latter half of this year, she won the silver medal in the World Cup final. In November 2015, she won a bronze medal in the Asian Championships with Jayanta Talukdar in the Recurve Mixed Team event.
In April 2016, at the first stage of the World Cup in Shanghai, Deepika equaled the Ki Bo-bae's world record of (686/720) in the women's recurve event.[30][31]
Deepika Kumari was the part of the team that qualified for 2016 Rio Olympics.[32] The Indian women's recursive team, consisting of Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi Laishram and Laxmirani Majhi, finished 7th in the ranking round. The team won their match against Colombia in the round of 16 before losing the quarterfinal match against Russia.[33]
In the women's Individual archery, Deepika Kumari produced a stellar performance in the round of 64 against Kristine Esebua of Georgia. Deepika won this round with a score of 6–4. In the next round, Deepika had a much-easier outing against Guendalina Sartori of Italy. Deepika started badly and lost the first round but won the next three to ease through 6–2 in the end.[34] However, in the round of 16, Deepika went down to Taipei's Tan Ya-ting with a score of 0 against 6.[35]
In November 2019, Deepika Kumari secured an Olympic quota at the Continental Qualification Tournament being held on the sidelines of the 21st Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok.[36] Deepika Kumari India won 3 gold medals in the Archery's World Cup Stage 3 tournament in Paris 2021.[37] She thus recorded the 13th triple gold and became the 11th archer to achieve the feat – in the 15-year history of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.
In popular culture
A biographical documentary called Ladies First, released in 2017, was made by Uraaz Bahl and his wife Shaana Levy-Bahl.[16] The movie won at the London Independent Film Festival and was screened at the Mallorca Film Festival in October 2017. Ladies First has also been submitted for the Short Documentary category at the Academy Awards.[citation needed]
This documentary was also screened for Maneka Gandhi, the Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development, with an aim to increase awareness about women in sports in India.[38]
Awards
Then President, Pranab Mukherjee, presenting the Arjuna Award for the year 2012 to Deepika Kumari for Archery, in a glittering ceremony, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on 29 August 2012.
Dola Banerjee is an Indian sportswoman who competes in archery.
Naomi Anne Folkard is a British archer who has represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games five times between 2004 and 2020. She has also represented Great Britain at the World Archery Championships and the Archery World Cup, and England at the Commonwealth Games.
Alison Jane Williamson MBE is a retired British archer who represented Great Britain at six consecutive Olympic Games from 1992 to 2012. She won a bronze medal in the women's individual event at the 2004 Summer Olympics, becoming the first British woman to win an Olympic archery medal in ninety-six years. Williamson achieved two medals at the World Archery Championships and represented England at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, winning two silver medals.
Jayanta Talukdar is an Indian archer from Assam. He has won individual gold Medal in the 2006 Archery World Cup.
Bombayla Devi Laishram is an Indian archer. A member of the national recurve team representing India at the international events since 2007, she has won a silver medal at the World Archery Championships, and four gold, five silver, and four bronze medals at various editions of the Archery World Cup. Laishram peaked at no. 14 in the world rankings in March 2009.
The women's recurve individual archery event at the 2010 Commonwealth Games was a competition held as part of the archery programme at the Yamuna Sports Complex in Delhi, India, from 4 October to 10 October 2010. It was the second time that the recurve individual event for women had been included in the Commonwealth Games and the first time it had been contested since the 1982 Games in Brisbane, Australia.
The women's individual archery event at the 2012 Olympic Games was held from 27 July to 2 August 2012 at Lord's Cricket Ground in London in the United Kingdom. The event was one of four which comprised the 2012 Olympic archery programme of sports and was the eleventh time the women's individual competition was contested as an Olympic event. Forty nations qualified for the competition, sending a total of sixty-four archers to compete. The defending Olympic champion from 2008 was Zhang Juanjuan of China, who did not compete following her retirement in 2010.
The national Indian governing body of archery as a sport in India is the Archery Association of India.
Amy Oliver is an archer from Great Britain. A competitor at the 2012 Summer Olympics, she won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, a bronze medal at the 2011 World Archery Championships, and was the women's individual recurve champion at the World Field Archery Championships in 2016. Oliver announced her retirement from the British national archery team in 2017.
Purnima Mahato is an Indian archer and archery coach from Jamshedpur, India. She has won the Indian national archery championships. She was a coach for the Indian national team at the 2008 Summer Olympics and was selected to coach the team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was awarded Dronacharya award from President of India for 2013 on 29 August 2013. She was conferred with the Padma Shri 2024, India's fourth highest civilian award, for her work in the field of Sports.
Ki Bo-bae is a South Korean recurve archer and three-time Olympic gold medalist. She was the winner of the women's team and women's individual events at the 2012 Summer Olympics and of the women's team event again at the 2016 Summer Olympics, where she also took bronze in the individual competition. Her tally of four Olympic medals places her among the most decorated archers in Olympic history.
Chang Hye-jin is a South Korean former recurve archer. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Chang was the Olympic champion in both the women's individual and women's team events at 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She is also a former number one-ranked recurve archer, having headed the World Archery Rankings between 2017 and 2019.
The women's individual archery event at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held from 5 to 13 August at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One of four archery events as part of the 2016 Olympic catalogue of sports, it was the fourteenth time a women's individual competition was contested as a discipline at the Olympic Games. Forty different nations qualified for the event, sending a total of sixty-four archers to compete. The defending Olympic champion was Ki Bo-bae of South Korea.
Karma is a Bhutanese recurve archer from Trashiyangtse in eastern Bhutan and lives at Thimphu also in Bhutan.
Laxmirani Majhi is an Indian female right handed recurve archer.
Atanu Das is an Indian archer. He represents India in the recurve men's individual and team events. His current world ranking is 9 as of 22 July 2021. He is the spouse of former World No. 1 Indian archer Deepika Kumari. The Indian Men's recurve team consisting of Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara and Tushar Shelke won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games. They lost the final to Republic of Korea.
Ankita Bhakat is an Indian recurve archer from West Bengal, who is currently ranked world number 20 by the World Archery Federation. She is a member of the Indian national recurve team and competes in international events in the women's individual, women's team and the mixed team recurve categories. She competed in the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships held at Rosario, Argentina, and won the gold medal in the recurve junior mixed team event with partner Jemson Singh Ningthoujam.
Lisa Barbelin is a French archer, who won the recurve events at the 2021 European Archery Championships, and 2022 European Indoor Archery Championships. She has previously won multiple medals at the World Youth Archery Championships, and won bronze medals in events at the 2019 and 2022 Archery World Cups. In June 2021 she was the world's number one ranked competitor. Barbelin competed in the women’s individual event at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games, winning the bronze medal in the latter.
Bhajan Kaur is an Indian archer from Haryana. She was selected for the Indian Archery team for the recurve events at the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. Along with Ankita Bhakat and Simranjeet Kaur, she won the Women's team recurve event bronze medal for India. The Indian trio defeated the Vietnamese team 6–2 in the bronze-medal play-off. On 16 June 2024, she won a gold in the final Olympic qualifier at Anatalya, Turkey. She represented India at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games at Paris.
Dhiraj Bommadevara is an Indian recurve archer. He finished fourth in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Bommadevara is a gold, silver, and multiple bronze medalist at the World Cup. He also won a silver medal at the Asian Games and a gold medal at the World Youth Championships.
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