Four years after losing his leg in a blast during a counter-insurgency operation, Toman Kumar stood on top of the podium in Gwangju as a World Archery Para champion.
Now, as he prepares for his first continental Games at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Para Games, the Indian compound archer is facing another major challenge – and doing so with a remarkable transformation behind him.
Forced to adapt to a completely different life after his injury, he found a new direction through archery and, less than five years after taking up the sport, has established himself among the world’s leading para archers.
“I had never thought I would do sport after the injury,” said the 31-year-old Kumar, who comes from Nawagaon, a rural village in Balod district in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. “I had never played sport before either. Nobody in my village played sport.”
Kumar joined India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in 2017 before undergoing training with its elite Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) unit in 2021.
That same year, he was caught in an improvised explosive device blast during a Naxal operation and had his left leg amputated.
The physical injury was only part of the challenge.
“Initially, I went through a lot of depression,” Kumar recalled. “But when I came to Hyderabad, I saw people with disabilities that were more severe than mine. That motivated me.”
Kumar had travelled to Hyderabad, in the southern Indian state of Telangana, for rehabilitation and to receive an artificial limb. It was there that he met coach Pankaj Singh, a meeting that would change the direction of his life.
“Toman had lived a completely normal life before the accident. As a commando, he was extremely fit, had taken part in operations and undergone extensive training,” Singh said.
“Suddenly he had to deal with such a major change. That creates a lot of difficulties.”
