Who is Deepika Kumari? Age, Achievements, Husband, Performance in the Olympics

Star Indian archer Deepika Kumari became the talk of the town once again following her sensational performance at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris. Not only did Deepika win three gold medals in women's individual, women's team, and mixed team – she also reclaimed her World Number 1 ranking for the first time since 2012.

Deepika will be the only female Indian archer at the Tokyo Olympics. Ahead of that, we take a deeper look at her life and career:

How old is Deepika Kumari?

Deepika Kumari was born in a village 15 km away from Ranchi in 1994 and is 27 years old. Despite very humble beginnings, she took to archery as a young child and practiced with mangoes and stones. Her parents found it difficult to support her dreams but Deepika was helped by her cousin at Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur and that is where her professional career began in 2006.

What are Deepika Kumari's achievements?

The 27-year-old conquered the world by winning the individual recurve medal at the 2012 World Cup in Turkey after beating Korea's Lee Sung-Jin. She would later go on to be crowned number one in the world rankings in Women's Recurve Archery. In 2014, Forbes India featured her in their prestigious list of 30 under 30.

Deepika added more gold medals at the 2018 Salt Lake City World Cup. She won the individual event and added another bronze medal in Samsun.

The year 2021 has been fantastic for the Indian star archer who won individual and gold team medals at the Guatemala City World Cup. Deepika's highlight of the year so far has been her recent conquest at the Paris World Cup Stage 3 where she won all three gold medals to climb back to the number one spot in the rankings.

Who is Deepika Kumari's Husband?

How has Deepika Kumari performed in the previous Olympics?

Deepika Kumari appeared in the Olympics for the first time in London in 2012. On that occasion, her performance, impacted by feverish conditions and high winds, had been disappointing. She lost in the opening round against Britain's Amy Oliver and crashed out of the tournament.

The Indian women's team consisting of Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi, and Laxmirani Majhi finished seventh in the ranking round at Rio Olympics. Although they did beat Colombia in the Round of 16, they failed to make it past Russia in the quarter-final.

Deepika produced a spectacular performance in the Round of 64 stage against Georgia's Kristine Esebua in the Women's Individual event. Winning the round with a score of 6-4, she met Italy's Guedalina Satori in the Round of 32 stage. Kumari got the better of her opposition once again but ended up being knocked out of the tournament by Taipei's Tan Ya-ting in the Round of 16 stage.

The 27-year-old achieved the Olympic quota for the Tokyo Games at the Continental Qualification Tournament held in November 2019.