Ranked World No. 9 in Archery: Deepika Kumari

 Deepika Kumari, currently ranked World No. 9 in Archery. She was born on 13 June 1994 to father Shivnarayan Mahato, an auto-rickshaw driver and mother Geeta Mahato, a nurse at Ranchi Medical College in a Prajapati Family in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

As a child, she practised archery while aiming for mangoes with stones.Deepika practised archery using homemade bamboo bows and arrow. Deepika's cousin Vidya Kumari, then a archer residing at Tata Archery Academy, helped her develop her talent.

Deepika Kumari at Archery Academy

Deepika made her first breakthrough in 2005 when she entered Arjun Archery Academy, an institute setup by Meera Munda. But her professional archery journey began in the year 2006 when she joined the Tata Archery Academy in Jameshedpur. It was here that she started her training with both the proper equipment as well as a uniform.

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

At the age of 15, she won the 11th Youth World Archery Championship held in Ogden, Utah, United States in 2009.

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.

In May 2012, Deepika Kumari won her first World cup individual stage recurve gold medal at Antalya, Turkey.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. 

Deepika Kumari was the part of the team that qualified for 2016 Rio Olympics. The Government of India awarded her the Civilian Honour of the Padma Shri in 2016.

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.