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Personal information | |
---|---|
Birth name | Pooja Khanna [1] |
Nationality | Indian |
Born | Rohtak, Harayana, India | 19 November 1990
Sport | |
Country | India |
Sport | Archery, |
Disability | Poliomyelitis (Right Leg) |
Achievements and titles | |
Paralympic finals | Represented (2016) |
Highest world ranking | 41 (2018) [2] |
Pooja Khanna is India's first ever Paralympic Archery player. She debuted at the 2016 Rio Olympics at the age of 25 and was the only archer from India among all the 19 athletes sent to the games. She secured a fifth-place in the final Paralympic Qualifier which secured India's spot in the 2016 Olympics under World Quota Recurve Women Open in the Czech Republic 2016. Her Olympic's journey ended at Round 32 after she failed to defeat Poland's Milena Olszewska by 2–6. She was able to secure a rank of 29 out of the 32 archers participating. [3]
Pooja Khanna was born in Rohtak, Haryana to parents who struggled by doing odd jobs for their living. Her father used to be a bin and scrap collector. On being not able to see her father's misery and financial inadequacy, she decided to venture into sports. She was diagnosed with Poliomyelitis during childhood. Her initial interest was in Shooting but instead she pursued her career in Discus throw until 2014, when she finally switched to Archery. [1] Because of her disability and their financial condition, her parents were against of their daughter taking up Archery, but eventually started supporting her. [4] She was born to a Dalit family and during her training faced discrimination and untouchability as well. She has also completed her master's degree in Library Sciences from Baba Mastnath University, Rohtak. She is the eldest sibling out of the 4 children. [1]
Her journey in sports began with her love and passion for Shooting since childhood. Her original plan was to compete at the highest level in Shooting. She used to get trained in Shooting at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Rohtak, but left her dream to compete at the highest level, because of less future scope and high costs. After leaving Shooting, she started her career in Discus throw and continued with it for 3 years and even played games at higher levels in it. It was only until 2014, when she discovered her likeness and inclination towards Archery, that she left Discus-throw. She learnt Archery in just two and a half years. [4]
The Rio 2016 Paralympics marked the first time in history that an Indian athlete competed in the Para-archery event. Her journey to Rio started with a lot of hardships. It wasn't just her disability or her caste, but the high costing of the sport as well. Archery is touted to be as one of the costliest Olympic sports. For her training she also needed an elite-level coach and enough equipment. She had to manage for her housing, food, travel expenses, both inter-country and international as well.
After escaping all the possible barriers, she finally made it to Rio for the event Recurve Individual Open. She made it till the Round 32 of the event where she was pitted against Poland's Milena Olszewska. The match had 4 sets, which started with Milena scoring 25 to Pooja's 22. The second set finished with Milena's 23 to Pooja's 21. In the third set, Pooja scored more than Milena which was 25–24. In the fourth set, Milena again defeated Pooja by scoring 23–22. [3] Pooja's overall score lead to her exit from her Olympics journey.
Pooja got the 29th spot out of all the 32 participants, whereas, Milena finished with securing the 4th spot. [3]
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.
Deepika Kumari is an Indian professional archer. Currently ranked the World No. 2, she competes in the event of archery. She won a gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women's individual recurve event. She also won a gold medal in the same competition in the women's team recurve event along with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi. She has 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 in Paris World Cup. Deepika Kumari won individual gold medals at the Archery World Cup Stage 1. Deepika Kumari also defeated Mexico by 5–1 in the final to win gold in Paris.
ARW1 is a Paralympic archery classification. It is a sitting class. This class includes Les Autres sportspeople. People from this class compete in the sport at the Paralympic Games.
ARW2 is a Paralympic archery classification.
ARST is a Paralympic archery classification. It is a standing class. This class includes Les Autres sportspeople. People from this class compete in the sport at the Paralympic Games. Some people in this class can use stools or have an assistant nock their arrows. Classification is handled by FITA – International Archery Federation.
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.
Zahra Nemati is an Iranian Paralympic and Olympic archer. She originally competed in taekwondo before she was paralyzed in a car accident. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics she won two medals, an individual gold and team bronze. She has qualified to compete at both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics. She was the flag bearer at the 2016 Olympics and the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo where she shared the honour with thrower Nourmohammad Arekhi.
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.
Archery at the 2016 Summer Paralympics was held between 10 and 17 September 2016 at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí in the Maracana zone of Rio de Janeiro, and consisted of nine events. The make up of those events changed substantially from the 2012 games, and consisted of three men's events, three women's events and three events for mixed gender teams. Men, women and mixed teams each competed in two events for compound bow, one for wheelchair athletes, the other open, and an open event for recurve bow, the bow used for all Olympic events.
Karma is a Bhutanese recurve archer from Trashiyangtse in eastern Bhutan and lives at Thimphu also in Bhutan.
Tuyana Norpolovna Dashidorzhieva is a Russian competitive archer of Buryat ethnicity. She helped her fellow compatriots and experienced Olympians Ksenia Perova and Inna Stepanova secure a historic team recurve title at the 2015 World Championships in Copenhagen, a silver at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and a bronze at the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju, completing a full set of medals throughout her sporting career in a major international competition.
Veronika Serhiyivna Marchenko is a Ukrainian competitive archer. She has collected medals in major international competitions, spanning the World Indoor Championships, the European Games, and the European Championships.
Poland competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016.
India competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Paralympic Games since 1968.
Anastasiia Vladyslavivna Pavlova is a Ukrainian competitive archer. She has collected a career total of at least ten medals in major international competitions, spanning the World Indoor Championships, the European Games, the World Cup series, and the European Championships.
Zehra Özbey Torun is a Turkish female para-archer competing in the women's recurve bow standing event. A former wheelchair basketball player, she competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Milena Magdalena Olszewska is a Polish Paralympic archer.
India competed in the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 August to 5 September 2021. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Paralympics since 1984, though they made their official debut at the 1968 Summer Paralympics. This was India's most successful Paralympic season with 5 golds 8 silvers and 6 bronzes. Before this edition, India had won 12 medals of all previous Paralympics appearances combined.
Taymon Kenton-Smith is an Australian Paralympic Recurve Archer. He represented Australia at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, in Men's individual recurve, and Mixed team recurve.
Pooja Jatyan is a para archer from Haryana. She is the first para athlete from India to take part in an Olympic Archery event at the Rio Paralympics 2016. She took part in the recurve women's open competition and qualified for the Rio event at the final world qualifier in the Czech Republic in 2016.