The 18-year-old quadruple amputee defeated her idol and Paralympic medalist Sheetal Devi, securing gold for India and setting her sights on LA 2028.

April 6 — Payal Nag just beat the best archer on the planet.

The 18-year-old quadruple amputee shot two perfect 10s in the final end to defeat her idol, teammate, and current world number one Sheetal Devi. The 139-136 upset victory secured the compound women’s individual gold at the World Archery Para Series. It capped a dominant weekend for the Indian contingent, which finished top of the standings with 16 medals.

But the scoreline only tells a fraction of the story.

Payal was born to Bijay and Janata Nag, daily-wage migrant labourers from the Balangir district of Odisha. Economic desperation forced the family to relocate to Raipur, Chhattisgarh, searching for work at local brick kilns.

In 2015, an eight-year-old Payal stepped on a live electric wire while playing near the work site. The massive electrical shock ravaged her body. To save her life, doctors had no choice but to amputate both her arms and both her legs.

Relatives told her parents her survival was meaningless. She was entirely dependent on others, eventually moving into an orphanage back in Balangir while her family relied on financial assistance from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund just to survive.

Then she found a bow.

Or rather, the sport found her. Confined to the orphanage, Payal began sketching and painting portraits, holding the brush with her mouth. In 2023, a video of her creating art surfaced on social media.

That video caught the eye of Kuldeep Vedwan.

Vedwan coaches at the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Sports Complex in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir. He is the man who discovered and built Sheetal Devi into a two-time Asian Para Games gold medalist and the youngest Paralympic medalist for India in Paris 2024.

He saw something in the geometry of Payal’s posture. He saw focus.

Vedwan tracked down the person who posted the video. He travelled personally to the orphanage in Balangir. Initially, the caretakers denied his request to take her. But Vedwan persisted, eventually convincing the district administration to let the teenager move to Jammu to train.

How does a teenager with no arms and no legs fire an arrow with enough precision to beat the best in the world?

It requires an entirely custom setup. Vedwan spent three months engineering a bespoke shooting rig tailored to her specific physical reality. A custom prosthetic leg device steadies the bow. A steel support mechanism holds the frame. She uses a specialized chest-release system, operated by her mouth and raw torso strength, to fire the shot. She cannot load the arrows herself. A spotter places the arrow on the rest. Everything else is breath control, core stability, and an unbreakable mind forged through intense yoga.

When she arrived in Katra with zero sporting background, Vedwan showed her videos of Sheetal Devi. Payal studied the footage obsessively. She trained alongside Sheetal at the Mata Vaishno Devi complex during 2023 and 2024. The two pushed each other daily, a masterclass in iron sharpening iron, before the world champion eventually shifted her base to Sonepat.

She progressed terrifyingly fast. Within a year, she was competing at the national level. The rivalry between the two stablemates has dominated the Indian para-archery circuit since early 2025. Payal stunned the establishment by beating Sheetal for gold at the 6th National Para Archery Championship in Jaipur in January 2025.

Sheetal struck back. She relegated Payal to silver at the Khelo India Para Games and the national championships in Patiala earlier this year. But the mutual respect was cemented. After their clash at the Khelo India games, Sheetal publicly praised her protege.

“Payal played very well and I am not surprised that she has come so far in just two years of shooting,” Sheetal told reporters. “I am glad Payal took up the sport.”

The stage in Bangkok was the ultimate tiebreaker. It was Payal’s first senior international appearance. Sheetal entered as the undisputed favourite, topping the qualification round with a score of 698 and 25 perfect 10s. Payal qualified third with a 678.

But finals are about nerves.

Payal opened the gold medal match with a perfect 10, taking the first end 27-25. Sheetal rallied, pulling the contest level at 54-all after the second end. In the crucial third frame, Sheetal faltered, dropping a 26. Payal held her nerve, shooting two 9s and a 10 to take an 82-80 lead.

Sheetal pressured her with two 10s in the final round. Payal didn’t blink. She matched the world champion with two 10s of her own, securing the 139-136 victory.

Reporters crowded her after the podium ceremony. They wanted to know about the brick kiln. They wanted to know about the tragedy.

“I don’t want to talk about the accident today,” Payal told the press, holding her gold medal. “Not today please. I can talk about it some other time.”

Her sister, Barsha, stood by her side in Bangkok and addressed the darkest days of their childhood. She remembered the people who wrote Payal off, the ones who whispered she was better off dead.

“Maybe because of that she became so strong,” Barsha said. “Today her success is a response to all those talks. Payal clearly proved them wrong.”

The victory rippled far beyond the archery range. Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra shared her story with his 10.8 million followers on X, posting footage of the two archers.

“Payal Nag. Daughter of a daily-wage mason from Odisha. Electrocuted at the age of eight. Lost all four limbs. And then, found a bow,” Mahindra wrote. “Whenever I am feeling low or sorry for myself I will look at these images of Payal and Sheetal again and remind myself what the words: Courage, Resilience and Positive thinking, really mean.”

He didn’t stop there. “These champions are not just my Monday motivation, they will be a source of motivation every single day,” he stressed.

They are exactly that. Payal’s gold was the crown jewel of India’s overwhelming dominance in Bangkok. The national contingent signed off at the top of the standings with 16 total medals, including seven golds, five silvers, and four bronze. They proved their adaptive athletics program is no longer just participating on the global stage. It is dictating the terms of competition.

Vedwan is already looking past the podium in Thailand. He built the rig. He built the champion. Now he is looking at the calendar.

“She has it in her to win multiple gold medals for India at the Asian Para Games,” Vedwan said.

A daily-wage mason’s daughter who lost everything to a live wire has now set her sights on the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics.