Tshering Choden (born 1 January 1979 or 6 July 1980) is an archer from

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

who competed at the

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. Choden was born in

Trashigang Trashigang (), or Tashigang, meaning "fortress of auspicious mount," is a town in eastern Bhutan and the district capital of the Trashigang Dzongkhag (district). The town lies to the east side of the valley above the Drangme Chhu river just s ...

, Bhutan. Having excelled at sports in school, in 1998 Choden was encouraged to try archery by her brother, who was a member of the Olympic team. Choden entered the

with a world ranking of 176. She was one of two Bhutanese athletes taking part in the Games, the other being with fellow archer Tashi Peljor, and was selected as Bhutan's flagbearer for the Games' opening ceremony. Choden began the women's individual event with fifty-fourth place in the preliminary 72-arrow ranking round, scoring 600 points from 720. She delivered a surprise result in the opening elimination round with victory over China's

Lin Sang Lin Sang (; born August 17, 1977, in Putian, Fujian) is an archer from the People's Republic of China. Lin represented China at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She placed 11th in the women's individual ranking round with a 72-arrow score of 647. I ...

by a margin of three points, becoming the first Bhutanese archer ever to win a match at the Olympics. Choden faced India's Reena Kumari in the second round, the pair posting identical scores of 134 points over the regulation eighteen arrows. On the subsequent tie-breaking arrow Kumari outscored Choden by seven points to four. Choden blamed her nerves for shooting so low. Choden retired from archery in 2005 but returned to the sport as a coach in 2007. She coached the only Bhutanese archer at the 2012 Olympic Games, Sherab Zam. She appeared in the 2004

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

documentary ''Die Bogenschützin von Bhutan''.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Choden, Tshering 1979 births Living people People from Trashigang District Bhutanese female archers Archers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Archers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic archers for Bhutan Archers at the 1998 Asian Games Archers at the 2002 Asian Games Archers at the 2006 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for Bhutan