Deepika Kumari (born 13 June 1994) is an Indianrecurve archer. A four-timeOlympian and two-timeWorld Championships silver medallist, Deepika is one of the most decorated Indian recurve archer and the first Indian archer to rise to the top of the world rankings, reaching the World No.1 ranking in 2012. She has been honored with theArjuna Award in 2012 and thePadma Shri in 2016, for her contribution to Indian sports.[2][3]
Deepika Kumari was born inRanchi,Bihar (nowJharkhand) to Shiv Charan Prajapati, anauto-rickshaw driver, and Geeta, a nurse atRanchi Medical College, and a native ofRatu Chatti village, 15 km from Ranchi.[4] She belongs to aPrajapati family.[5]
As a child, she practised aiming for mangoes with stones.[6] 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 atKharsawan, an institute set up by Meera Munda, wife of Jharkhand's chief ministerArjun Munda. But her professional archery journey began in the year 2006 when she joined the Tata Archery Academy inJamshedpur.[7] 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.[8] Kumari has long been seen as the one to finally get India its first medal in archery.[9]
Deepika married archerAtanu Das on 30 June 2020.[10][11][12] Their daughter, Vedika, was born in December 2022.[13]
Deepika became the second Indian to win the title afterPalton Hansda won the junior compound competition at the2006 Archery World Cup inMérida, Mexico.[14]
She won the 11th Youth World Archery Championship held inOgden, 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, alongsideDola Banerjee andBombayala Devi.
_Deepika_Kumari_of_India_(Gold)%2c_Alison_Jane_Williamson_of_England_(Silver)_and_Dola_Banerjee_of_India_(Bronze)_during_the_medal_presentation_ceremony.jpg)
At theDelhi 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 inGuangzhou, China, Deepika missed out on a medal after she lost toKwon 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 firstWorld Cup individual stage recurve gold medal atAntalya, Turkey. She beat Korea'sLee Sung-Jin by six set points to four in the final.[15] Later in 2012, she would go on to become world no. 1 in Women's Recurve Archery.InLondon Olympics 2012, Deepika Kumari lost againstAmy Oliver of Great Britain in the opening round, attributing a relatively poor performance to fever and high winds.[16][17]
On 22 July 2013, she won the gold medal inArchery World Cup stage 3 held at Medellin, Colombia where India finished fourth.[18] On 22 September 2013, Deepika lost 4–6 toYun Ok-Hee of South Korea & settled for silver medal in2013 FITA Archery World Cup. This was her 3rd Silver medal in as many appearances in the World Cup Final.[19]
In 2014, Deepika was featured byForbes (India) as one of their '30 under 30'.[17] However, she failed to make the Indian team for 2014 after finishing outside the top 4 at the national qualifications.[20]
In 2015, Deepika's first medal came at the second stage of theWorld Cup, where she won a bronze in the individual event. At theWorld Championships in Copenhagen, she won a team silver along withLaxmirani Majhi andRimil 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 theAsian Championships withJayanta Talukdar in the Recurve Mixed Team event.
In April 2016, at the first stage of theWorld Cup inShanghai, Deepika equaled theKi Bo-bae's world record of (686/720) in the women's recurve event.[21][22]
Deepika Kumari was the part of the team that qualified for2016 Rio Olympics.[23] The Indian women's recursive team, consisting of Deepika Kumari,Bombayla Devi Laishram andLaxmirani Majhi, finished 7th in the ranking round. The team won their match againstColombia in the round of 16 before losing the quarterfinal match againstRussia.[24]
In the women's Individual archery, Deepika Kumari produced a stellar performance in the round of 64 againstKristine Esebua ofGeorgia. Deepika won this round with a score of 6–4. In the next round, Deepika had a much-easier outing againstGuendalina Sartori ofItaly. Deepika started badly and lost the first round but won the next three to ease through 6–2 in the end.[25] However, in the round of 16, Deepika went down toTaipei'sTan Ya-ting with a score of 0 against 6.[26]
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.[27] Deepika Kumari India won 3 gold medals in the Archery's World Cup Stage 3 tournament in Paris 2021.[28] 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.
A biographical documentary calledLadies First, released in 2017, was made by Uraaz Bahl and his wife Shaana Levy-Bahl.[7] The movie won at theLondon 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 theAcademy Awards.[citation needed]
This documentary was also screened forManeka Gandhi, the Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development, with an aim to increase awareness about women in sports in India.[29]
| Year | Award | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Arjuna Award | |
| 2014 | FICCI Sportsperson of the Year Award | |
| 2016 | Padma Shri | |
| 2017 | Young Achievers Award | Felicitated byVogue[30] |
| Tournament | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 | 2024 | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Archery tournaments | |||||||||||||
| Olympic Games | 1R | 3R | QF | QF | 0/4 | ||||||||
| World Championships | 3R | 3R | 3R | 2R | 3R | 0/5 | |||||||
| World Cup | |||||||||||||
| Stage 1 | 3R | QF | 2nd | 3R | QF | QF | 4R | W | 2nd | 3/9 | |||
| Stage 2 | QF | 3R | W | 2R | 3R | 3rd | 4th | QF | 4th | 2/8 | |||
| Stage 3 | 3R | 2nd | QF | 4R | 4R | W | 4R | W | 4R | 3/9 | |||
| Stage 4 | 2nd | 3rd | QF | 3rd | QF | 3rd | 4R | 3/7 | |||||
| World Cup Final | QF | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | DNQ | 2nd | DNQ | DNQ | 3rd | DNQ | 4th | 2nd | 6/8 |
.jpg)
