16-year-old Sheetal Devi, the only current female international to shoot with their feet in the world, clinched three medals and was the star at the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou. She had won Gold in mixed team compound archery and silver in women's doubles compound archery. Sheetal showed off the composure of a veteran and defeated Singapore's Alim Nur Syahidah to swipe gold in the individual women's compound event on Friday.

Sheetal, hailing from Loidhar village in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, was born with Phocomelia, a rare congenital disorder that causes under-developed limbs. “My parents always had faith in me. My friends in the village also supported me. The only thing I didn’t like was the look on people’s faces when they realised that I don’t have arms. These medals prove that I am special. These medals are not just mine, but of the whole country,” she said in an interview with The Indian Express.

Sheetal went from being a school-going girl to an Asian Para Games medallist when she enrolled for a youth event organised by the Indian Army in Kishtwar in 2021. She was spotted by the scouts because of her athleticism and they went on to get her a prosthetic arm. They contacted the Major Akshay Girish Memorial Trust in Bengaluru, which in turn approached, Being You, an online storytelling platform.

However, Sheetal faced issues with the prosthetic arm as it did not fit. “When we saw her, we felt the prosthetic arm would not work for her. She felt like it was the end of the road,” said Preethi Rai, co-founder of Being You.

But even in such peril they did not lose hope. Rai said that according to an assessment done by sports physiotherapist Shrikant Iyenger, she had a very strong upper body and got 8.5 out of 10 in the test. Hence, Iyengar suggested archery, swimming and running as options.

Sheetal climbed trees as a pastime back home, using her legs and upper body and this helped her eventually. She said, “Trees ki oochaniyaan ko choona chahiti thi, yahi cheez mujhe hamesha khush rakhti thi (I wanted to touch the heights of the trees, that was the only thing which made me happy).”

Finally according to a collective decision Sheetal went to train at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Sports Complex in Katra. Coaches Abhilasha Chaudhary and Kuldeep Vedwan decided to improvise based on 2012 London Paralympics silver medallist Matt Stutzman as they had never trained an archer without arms. “We modified a locally-made releaser into a shoulder releaser. We also put together a string mechanism for the chin and mouth to create the trigger to help her release the arrow," said Chaudhary.

Initially Sheetal shot 50-100 arrows daily and then the count went up to 300. Only after a span of six months, she won a silver medal at the Para Open Nationals in Sonepat. She also finished fourth while competing against able-bodied archers at the Open Nationals.

“My father worked all day on the rice and vegetable farm, and my mother looked after three-four goats owned by our family. Whatever my father earns is spent on the family; we hardly have any savings,” the teenager said to The Indian Express. So she was determined to make a name for herself and help her family. 

Earlier this year, Sheetal swiped a silver medal at the World Para Archery Championships in Pilsen in the Czech Republic and became the first female armless archer to win a medal at the world championship.