Roshibina Devi is now one of the most well-known names in Indian wushu, after making a name for herself at the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.
The Manipuri athlete won silver in the women's 60kg Sanda event on Thursday, September 24, adding another medal to the bronze she won at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games and the silver she won at the 2023 Hangzhou Games.
After winning three consecutive Asian Games medals as an Indian wushu athlete, Roshibina became the first Indian wushu athlete to achieve this. She’s now evolved from a childhood interest in combat sports to one of the most consistent Asian Games careers for Indian wushu.
Who is Roshibina Devi?
Naorem Roshibina Devi was born on 30 December 2000 at Kwasiphai Mayai Leikai in Manipur's Bishnupur district.
She comes from a farming family. Her father, Naorem Damu, is a farmer, and her mother, Naorem Romila, works in agricultural fields. Roshibina has an elder sister and a younger brother.
She took an interest in wushu when she was a child; she watched the sport at a district-level competition. She tried boxing first, but eventually she chose wushu and started training seriously.
Her early training included time at the Sports Authority of India centre in Imphal, where she trained under coach Maibam Premkumar Singh.
What is particularly memorable about her early career is how basic her training setup was.
Roshibina made her own makeshift punching bag at home as a child, using old clothes. She would use the improvised equipment to practise her punches before she got access to professional facilities and a training environment, which would become part of her sporting career.
That childhood improvisation has since become one of the defining details of her journey from Manipur to the Asian Games podium.
From World Junior Medal To Asian Games Success.
The progression of Roshibina is visible at the international level at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Burgas, Bulgaria in 2016, where she won a bronze medal in 48kg category.
Two years later, she made her Asian Games debut at Jakarta-Palembang 2018.
Roshibina reached the semifinals of the women’s 60kg Sanda and won a bronze medal. At just 17, she had already established herself as an athlete capable of competing at the top level of Asian wushu.
She continued to push her international record after that.
Roshibina won gold at the South Asian Games in 2019. She won a silver medal at the World Wushu Championships in Texas in 2023 and won gold at the Moscow Wushu Stars Championship in 2023. In 2023, she was awarded the Arjuna Award for wushu.
Her career was further taken forward at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Roshibina followed up her Jakarta result by winning silver in the women's 60kg Sanda event. That made her India's most successful wushu athlete at the Asian Games at that time, winning medals at two consecutive editions.
Roshibina Devi’s historic 2026 Asian Games campaign.
Her way to the 2026 Asian Games was indeed not easy.
Roshibina had suffered a knee injury and lost the selection trial to teammate Divyanshi Choudhary. Divyanshi was initially selected for the women's 60kg Sanda category.
But Divyanshi was later ruled out after medical exams revealed a high-grade ACL injury. The Wushu Association of India then selected Roshibina as her replacement, and the Sports Ministry finally approved the change.
The replacement process was controversial as Divyanshi publicly accused harassment and questioned the decision. The Wushu Association of India rejected those allegations and claimed the selection change was based on medical grounds.
Once in Japan, Roshibina was focused on competition.
She beat Macau's Chu Man Sin 5-0 in the quarterfinal to guarantee herself a bronze medal. In the semi-final, she beat Indonesia's Thania Kusumaningtyas 2-0 to reach the final.
In the gold medal match, Roshibina faced Zhang Xiaoyu from China. Zhang won the final 2-0, and Roshibina won silver.
Despite missing out on gold, the result marked a new stage in Indian wushu as well. Her third consecutive Asian Games medal made her the first Indian wushu athlete to win a medal at three consecutive editions of the continental Games.
What is Sanda?
Roshibina competes in Sanda, the combat discipline of wushu.
Unlike Taolu, which is about choreographed movements and technical execution, Sanda is a fighting format with striking, kicking and throwing techniques.
The women’s 60kg category has been Roshibina's main Asian Games event. She won bronze in the category in 2018, silver in 2023 and another silver in 2026.
In fact, her three-medal sequence also reflects her consistency over different stages of her career. She was a teenage debutant when she won bronze in Jakarta, improved to silver in Hangzhou, and then returned to the podium again in Aichi-Nagoya at the age of 25.
As a child throwing punches against a homemade bag stuffed with old clothes to become the first Indian wushu athlete with three consecutive Asian Games medals, Roshibina Devi’s career has been built on years of training and competition.
Her new silver might not have changed colour from her Hangzhou medal, but it added another historic chapter to her Asian Games career and strengthened her place among India’s leading wushu athletes.
