Karma (born 6 June 1990) is a Bhutanese recurve

archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In mo ...

from

Trashiyangtse Trashiyangtse or Tashi Yangtse is a small town in Yangtse Gewog, and the district headquarters of the Trashiyangtse District in eastern Bhutan. It lies inside the Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary on the eastern tri-junction of Bhutan-India-China and to ...

in eastern

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

and lives at

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient ...

also in Bhutan.

Career

Like with other Bhutanese, Karma is a

mononymous person A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

who goes by a single name. Being interested in sports, Karma took up archery in April 2009. She could have been a runner if not archery came first. Her first appearance as an international competitor was in 2012 and by 2018, she already competed in more than eight international events. She competed in the individual recurve event and the team recurve event at the 2013 and

2015 World Archery Championships The 2015 World Archery Championships was the 48th edition of the event. It was held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 26 July to 2 August 2015 and was organised by World Archery Federation (formerly known as FITA). Qualification and elimination rounds ...

in Copenhagen, Denmark and she represented

at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

as wildcard. She was defeated in the first round by Tuiana Dashidorzhieva of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Karma was the flag bearer for Bhutan during the

Parade of Nations The Olympic Games ceremonies of the Ancient Olympic Games were an integral part of these Games; the modern Olympic games have opening, closing, and medal ceremonies. Some of the elements of the modern ceremonies date back to the Ancient Games from ...

. Karma took part in the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in 2021 in Tokyo, and was again a flag-bearer for Bhutan in the

during the opening ceremony. She is also the very first athlete from Bhutan who got a place in the quota allocation system of the Olympics in any sport and the first female from Bhutan who qualified for the games. While practicing for the Tokyo Olympics in May 2021, Karma was able to do a "Robin Hood" shot, which is an arrow being fired into another arrow that is already in the target board, splitting it, just like as told in the stories of the legendary

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...

. The odds in doing the shot is 1 in 3,000. She was able to land a spot at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo after qualifying through Asian championships in 2018 at

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. Eventually, her journey ends in the Tokyo Olympics when she lost to

Deepika Kumari Deepika Kumari (born 13 June 1994) is an Indian professional archer. Currently ranked the World No. 2, 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 w ...

of India at 6-0 in round of 64. Despite losing to Kumari, she is satisfied in giving her best and opined that qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics was her biggest dreams as well as an achievement for her country.

References

External links

* * Bhutanese female archers Living people People from Trashiyangtse District 1990 births Olympic archers for Bhutan Archers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Bhutan Archers at the 2020 Summer Olympics South Asian Games medalists in archery {{Bhutan-archery-bio-stub