Deepika Kumari
Deepika Kumari in 2012
Personal information
Born (1994-06-13) 13 June 1994
Ratu Chatti, Ranchi, Bihar (present-day Jharkhand), India
Height1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight56 kg (123 lb)
SpouseAtanu Das[1]
Sport
CountryIndia
SportArchery
ClubTata Archery Academy
TeamIndian Archery Women Team
Turned pro2006
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking1[2]
Medal record
Women's archery
Representing  India
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2011 Torino Women's Team
Silver medal – second place 2015 Copenhagen Women's Team
Asian Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Bangkok Mixed Team
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Bangkok Team
Silver medal – second place 2015 Bangkok Recurve Team
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Bangkok Mixed Team
Gold medal – first place 2013 Taipei Mixed Team
Silver medal – second place 2011 Tehran Recurve Team
World Cup
Gold medal – first place 2021 Guatemala City Women's Individual
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2010 Delhi Recurve individual
Gold medal – first place 2010 Delhi Recurve team
Asian Games
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Guangzhou Recurve team

Deepika Kumari (born 13 June 1994) is an Indian professional archer. Currently ranked the World No. 2, she competes in the event of archery.[3][4][5] 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.[6] 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 [7] in Paris World Cup.[8] Deepika Kumari won individual gold medals at the  Archery World Cup Stage 1.[9] Deepika Kumari also defeated Mexico by 5–1 in the final to win gold in Paris.[10]

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.[11]

She was conferred the Arjuna Award, India's second highest sporting award, in the year 2012 by President of India Pranab Mukherjee.[12] In February 2014, she was honored with FICCI Sportsperson of the Year Award.[13] The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2016.[14]

Early life

Deepika Kumari was born in Ranchi, Bihar (now Jharkhand) to Shiv Charan Prajapati, an auto-rickshaw driver, and Geeta, a nurse at Ranchi Medical College, and a native of Ratu Chatti village, 15 km away from Ranchi, Jharkhand.[15] She belongs to Prajapati family.[16][17]

As a child, she practised archery while aiming for mangoes with stones.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20] Kumari has long been seen as the one to finally get India its first medal in archery.[21]

Personal life

Deepika married archer Atanu Das on 30 June 2020.[22][23]

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.[24]

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.[25] 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.[26][27]

On 22 July 2013, she won the gold medal in Archery World Cup stage 3 held at Medellin, Colombia where India finished fourth.[28] 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.[29]

In 2014, Deepika was featured by Forbes (India) as one of their '30 under 30'.[27] However, she failed to make the Indian team for 2014 after finishing outside the top 4 at the national qualifications.[30]

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.[31][32]

Deepika Kumari was the part of the team that qualified for 2016 Rio Olympics.[33] 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.[34]

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.[35] However, in the round of 16, Deepika went down to Taipei's Tan Ya-ting with a score of 0 against 6.[36]

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.[37] Deepika Kumari India won 3 gold medals in the Archery's World Cup Stage 3 tournament in Paris 2021.[38] 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 called Ladies First, released in 2017, was made by Uraaz Bahl and his wife Shaana Levy-Bahl.[19] 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 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.[39]

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[40]

Individual performance timeline

Tournament20102011201220132014 201520162017201820192021 SR
World Archery tournaments
Olympic Games 1R 3R QF 0/3
World Championships 3R 3R 3R 2R 3R 0/5
World Cup
Stage 1 3R QF 2nd 3R QF QF 4R W 1/7
Stage 2 QF 3R W 2R 3R 3rd 4th QF 2/8
Stage 3 3R 2nd QF 4R 4R W 4R W 3/7
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 5/7

References

  1. ↑ "Archers Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das Tie The Knot, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren Attends Wedding". news18.com. 1 July 2020.
  2. ↑ "India's Deepika Kumari becomes World No. 1 archer". NDTV. 21 June 2012. Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Archer Deepika Kumari becomes world No. 1 after winning gold at World Cup". timesofindia. 28 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "India's Deepika Kumari becomes World No. 1 archer". 21 June 2012. Archived from the original on 19 August 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  5. ↑ "Published Rankings". Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  6. ↑ "Athlete of the Week: Deepika KUMARI (IND)". Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  7. ↑ Singh, Suhani (29 June 2021). "Why archer Deepika Kumari is a serious medal contender in the Tokyo Games". India Today. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  8. ↑ "Deepika's Hat-trick Gold Medals at WC". gulte. 28 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  9. ↑ "Archery World Cup: Star couple Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari win individual recurve gold medals". India Today. 26 April 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  10. ↑ "Archery World Cup: Indian women's recurve team beat Mexico to win gold in Paris". India Today. 27 June 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  11. ↑ Deepika Kumari Archived 1 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine - London 2012 Olympics athlete profiles
  12. ↑ "Khel Ratna award for Vijay, Yogeshwar". CNN-IBN. Archived from the original on 1 September 2012.
  13. ↑ "FICCI announces the Winners of India Sports Awards for 2014". news.biharprabha.com. Indo-Asian News Service. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "Padma Awards 2016". Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  15. ↑ "Eyes on Deepika Kumari as India hopes for first archery medal at Rio". hindustantimes. 23 July 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  16. ↑ "History of Archer Deepika Kumari, early life, and achievments". historyclasses. 28 June 2021. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  17. ↑ "Ace archer Deepika Kumari gets Padma Shri, takes a bow". Hindustantimes. 26 January 2016. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  18. ↑ "Deepika Kumari: From mangoes to CWG gold", The Siasat Daily, 10 October 2010. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  19. 1 2 "This film captures the inspiring journey of Olympic archer Deepika Kumari". VOGUE India. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
  20. ↑ "Father accepts Deepika has proved him wrong" Archived 27 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine, The Hindustan times, 11 October 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  21. ↑ Singh, Suhani (30 June 2021). "Why archer Deepika Kumari is a serious medal contender in the Tokyo Games". India Today. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
  22. ↑ "Deepika Kumari, Atanu Das to get married on June 30". The Hindu. 27 June 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  23. ↑ "Archers Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das tie the knot in Ranchi on Tuesday". thebridge. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  24. ↑ "Archery champion Deepika, an inspiration for the youth". Thaindian.com. 30 July 2009. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  25. ↑ "Deepika Kumari wins first World Cup title". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 6 May 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  26. ↑ "Deepika Kumari crashes out to end Indian challenge in archery". The Times of India. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  27. 1 2 "Deepika Kumari: Targeting Gold". dna. 19 February 2014.
  28. ↑ "Deepika shoots gold in archery World Cup". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 22 July 2013.
  29. ↑ "Deepika Kumari settles for silver in Archery World Cup Final". dna. 22 September 2013.
  30. ↑ "KUMARI not in India's Shanghai squad". dna. 2 April 2014.
  31. ↑ "Deepika Kumari Equals World Record in Shanghai". World Archery Federation. worldarchery.org. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  32. ↑ "Deepika Kumari equals world record at Archery World Cup - Times of India". The Times of India.
  33. ↑ "2016 Rio Olympics: Indian men's archery team faces last chance to make cut". Zee News. 11 June 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  34. ↑ "India women's archery team of Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi, Bombayla Devi lose quarter-final against Russia". The Indian Express. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  35. ↑ "Rio 2016 - Archers and boxer Manoj Kumar dazzle, while Jitu Rai falters". 10 August 2016.
  36. ↑ "Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari bow out of Rio 2016 Olympics". The Indian Express. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  37. ↑ "Take a bow! Deepika Kumari secures Olympic quota with gold". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
  38. ↑ Minnette, Lucas. "Deepika Kumari Net Worth 2021 – Income, Cars, Husband & Career". Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  39. ↑ "Archer Deepika Kumari Asks Some Difficult Questions on India's Hypocrisy About Women in Sports". Huffington Post India. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  40. ↑ "Mithali Raj, women's cricket captain, archer Deepika Kumari win Vogue awards". Hindustan Times. 26 September 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
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