As a child, Mahato watched archery at a range in Birsanagar, Jamshedpur.[7] She trained there before moving to a range at Burmamines, Jamshedpur when the one in Birsanagar closed.[7] She made it to the Indian national team in 1992, and moved to Delhi to train with the team.[7]
As an archer, Mahato earned medals in both national and international archery competitions.[8] She was also an Indian national champion.[7] At the 1993 International Archery Championship, she earned a gold medal in the team event.[1] At the 1994 Pune National Games, she won six gold medals in archery.[7][9] She competed at the 1994 Asian Games but did not medal.[7] In 1997 at the National Championships, she earned two gold medals and set two national records.[10][7] At the 1999 Indian National Games, Dola Banerjee broke a national record Mahato had set two years earlier in the 30 metre archery event.[11]
Coaching
Mahato is an archery coach. Starting in 1994, she coached at the Tata Archery Academy, a position she had held as of 2012.[1][8][12] Archers she has personally coached include 2012 Summer Olympian Deepika Kumari.[13][14][15][16][17][18]
Mahato has been a coach for Indian national teams at several events[1] including the 2005 Senior World Outdoor Archery Championship at Spain, where her team earned a silver medal.[1] She also coached the Indian side at the 2007 Senior Asian Archery Championship in China,[1] where the men's team she coached finished first and the women's team she coached finished third.[1] She was an assistant coach for India at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[19][20] She also coached the Indian side at the 2008 World Cup in Croatia,[1] where her archers earned a silver medal and a bronze medal at the event.[1] She coached India at the 2009 World Youth Archery Championship.[21] She coached the three Indian archers at the 2010 Archery World Cup Grand.[22] She coached the Indian national team at the 2010 Asian Games, where her archers earned two bronze medals in the individual events.[23] She coached the Indian national team at the 2010 Commonwealth games, with her archers earning three gold and two bronze medals.[8] At the Global Sports Summit TURF 2011, she was named the coach of the year.[12] She got Ram Dayal MundaAward for BestCoach of the year from Government of Jharkhand on Olympic Day Run celebrations, 23 June 2012 at Ranchi.[24]
