Estonia's Lisell Jaatma, who walked away from international competition in 2025 to manage burnout, depression and an eating disorder, has won the compound women's individual gold at the second stage of the 2026 Hyundai Archery World Cup in Shanghai. The 26-year-old shot nine perfect tens across her elimination matches and beat Mexico's Andrea Becerra 145-144 in the final to seal a comeback she had not been sure she would ever attempt.
It was a knife-edge week in windy Chinese conditions. Jaatma defeated American Alexis Ruiz 149-149 in a shoot-off earlier in the day, then closed out Becerra in a final that came down to the last arrow on a single point.
"I'm still speechless... I have to think about what happened," Jaatma said on the podium, the medal still in her hand.
She walked reporters through the closing ends. "I was concentrating on doing my own thing. Just shoot well and we will see," she said. The fourth end nearly broke her — "Then in the fourth end I shot two nines and got a little nervous, but in the fifth end I was like, 'Okay, now we have to focus. Just do three good shots and we will see.'"
It was the personal context that defined the post-match emotion. Jaatma had taken a six-week complete break from the sport last summer and a four-month competitive hiatus before returning to international action in January.
"I was burnt out, depressed and struggling with an eating disorder," she said openly. "I basically didn't have energy to do anything and felt bad 24/7. I made a lot of changes, started working with different specialists and slowly got better."
Her mother and brother had flown to Shanghai to watch. "It means everything to have my mum and brother here. Last year was really hard for me, so I'm really happy and I've been waiting for this," Jaatma said.
She kept reframing the medal in the same way: as the one piece of metal still missing from a senior career that began with European cadet titles a decade ago and that has produced multiple individual World Cup silvers and bronzes since.
"I think everybody wants to win and never come back without gold. I have silver and bronze, but I've been waiting for this for so long, so it means a lot," she said. "It's definitely a special one."
The compound women's gold is Estonia's first individual senior World Cup gold in the discipline and lifts Jaatma into the conversation for the headlining event of the year — the indoor and outdoor World Championships, which the women's compound section is shooting in Madrid in September.
It also reframes a story line that, twelve months ago, had been about whether one of the world's most consistent compound archers would shoot internationally again.
"I think this is special," Jaatma said one more time. "Yeah, I think so."
The Shanghai stage closed with China at the top of the medal table. The World Cup tour next moves to the European Outdoor Championships in Antalya from May 18, before the third global stage in Madrid in early June.
