Deepika Kumari

Deepika Kumari

Deepika Kumari in 2012
Personal information
Born	(1994-06-13) 13 June 1994 Ranchi, Bihar (now Jharkhand), India
Height	1.61 m (5 ft 3 in) (2010)
Weight	56 kg (123 lb) (2010)
Spouse(s)	Atanu Das
Sport
Country	India
Sport	Archery
Club	Tata Archery Academy
Team	Indian Archery Women Team
Turned pro	2006
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking	1
Medal record Women's archery Representing India World Championships 2011 Torino Women's Team 2015 Copenhagen Women's Team Asian Championships 2019 Bangkok Mixed Team 2019 Bangkok Team 2015 Bangkok Recurve Team 2015 Bangkok Mixed Team 2013 Taipei Mixed Team 2011 Tehran Recurve Team World Cup 2021 Guatemala City Women's Individual Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi Recurve individual 2010 Delhi Recurve team Asian Games 2010 Guangzhou Recurve team

Deepika Kumari (born 13 June 1994) is the spouse of indian archer Atanu Das and an Indian professional archer. Currently ranked the World No. 1, 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.

Kumari qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, where she competed in the Women's Individual and Women's team events, finishing in eighth place in the latter.

She was conferred the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award, in the year 2012 by President of India Pranab Mukherjee. In February 2014, she was honored with FICCI Sportsperson of the Year Award. The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2016.

Early life

Deepika Kumari was born in Ranchi, Bihar (now Jharkhand) to Shivnarayan Mahato, an auto-rickshaw driver and her mother Geeta, a nurse at Ranchi Medical College. Her parents live at Ratu Chatti village, 15 km away from Ranchi, Jharkhand. As a child, she practised archery while aiming for mangoes with stones. In the early days it was difficult for the 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.

Career

Deepika Kumari in 2011, with Purnima Mahato

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. It was here that she started her training with both the proper equipment as well as a uniform. She also received Rs 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. Kumari has long been seen as the one to finally get India its first medal in archery.

Personal life

Deepika married archer Atanu Das on 30 June 2020.

Achievements

Deepika became the second Indian to win the title after Palton Hansda won the junior compound competition at the 2006 Archery World Cup in Mérida, Mexico.

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. 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.

On 22 July 2013, she won the gold medal in Archery World Cup stage 3 held at Medellin, Colombia where India finished fourth. 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.

In 2014, Deepika was featured by Forbes (India) as one of their '30 under 30'. However, she failed to make the Indian team for 2014 after finishing outside the top 4 at the national qualifications.

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.

Deepika Kumari was the part of the team that qualified for 2016 Rio Olympics. 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.

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. However, in the round of 16, Deepika went down to Taipei's Tan Ya-ting with a score of 0 against 6.

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. Deepika Kumari India won 3 gold medals in the Archery's World Cup Stage 3 tournament in Paris 2021. 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. The movie won at the London Independent Film Festival and will be screened at the Mallorca Film Festival in October 2017. Ladies First has also been submitted for the Short Documentary category at Oscars.

This documentary was also screened with Maneka Gandhi, the Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development, with an aim to increase the national awareness about women in sports in India.

Awards

The 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.

Year	Award	Notes
2012	Arjuna Award
2014	FICCI Sportsperson of the Year Award
2016	Padma Shri
2017	Young Achievers Award	Felicitated by Vogue

Individual performance timeline

Tournament	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	SR
World Archery tournaments
Olympic Games			1R				0/1
World Championships		3R		3R		3R	1/3
World Cup
Stage 1		3R	QF	2nd			0/4
Stage 2	QF	3R	W	2R	3R	3rd	2/6
Stage 3	3R	2nd		QF			1/3
Stage 4	2nd	3rd		QF	3rd		34
World Cup Final	QF	2nd	2nd	2nd	DNQ	2nd

External links

• www.deepikakumari.com
• Deepika Kumari at the World Archery Federation
• Deepika Kumari at the International Olympic Committee
• Ladies First on IMDb