In a historic achievement, Manu Bhaker has secured a bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event at the Paris 2024 Olympics. This marks the first medal for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics and the first Olympic medal in shooting for India since the London 2012 Olympic Games.

With this achievement, Manu becomes the first Indian female shooter to win a medal in Olympics, a day after she became the first female shooter to reach an Olympic final in an individual event in the last 20 years.

Manu Bhaker became the fifth Indian shooter to clinch a medal in the Olympic Games after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004 Athens), Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing), Vijay Kumar (2012 London) and Gagan Narang (2012 London).

Qualification Round Highlights:

• Manu Bhaker finished 3rd with a score of 580 in the qualification rounds, also shooting the highest number of Perfect Scores (27).

• She became the 1st Indian female shooter to reach an Olympic Final in an individual event in the last 20 years! The last time was Suma Shirur, who reached the Final of the 10m Air Rifle event in Athens 2004.

• She also became the first Indian woman to qualify for the 10M AIR PISTOL WOMEN'S final round at any Olympics.

Key Government Interventions and Financial Assistance (Paris Cycle):

• Assistance for ammunition and weapon servicing, pellet and ammunition testing, and barrel selection

• Assistance towards training with personal coach Mr. Jaspal Rana in Luxembourg for the Olympics preparation

• Financial assistance under TOPS: Rs. 28,78,634/-

• Financial assistance under Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC): Rs. 1,35,36,155/-

Achievements:

• Gold Medal in 25m Pistol Team at Asian Games (2022)

• Gold Medal in 25m Pistol Team at World Championship, Baku (2023)

• Quota place for Paris Games 2024 at Asian Shooting Championship, Changwon (2023)

• Bronze Medal in 25m Pistol at World Cup, Bhopal (2023)

• Silver Medal in 25m Pistol at World Championship, Cairo (2022)

• Two Gold Medals in 10m Air pistol individual and women's team event at World University Games, Chengdu (2021)

Background:

Manu Bhaker is an Indian Olympian who competes in shooting. Born in Jhajjar, Haryana, a state known for its boxers and wrestlers, Manu Bhaker took to sports like tennis, skating and boxing in school. She also participated in a form of martial arts called ‘thang ta’, winning medals at the national level. She then impulsively decided to try her hand at shooting when she was just 14 – just after the 2016 Rio Olympics ended – and loved it.

At the 2017 National Shooting Championships, Manu Bhaker stunned Olympian and former world No. 1 Heena Sidhu where she won 9 gold medals. Manu shot a record score of 242.3 to erase Sidhu’s mark to win the 10m Air Pistol final. 2018 was Bhaker’s breakthrough year as a shooter as she became a teenage sensation bagging a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games just at the age of 16.

In the 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup held at Guadalajara, Mexico. Bhaker won the gold medal in the Women's 10-metre air pistol, defeating Mexico's Alejandra Zavala, a two-time champion.

Manu Bhaker also sealed an Olympics quota place with a fourth-place finish at the 2019 Munich ISSF World Cup. However, her debut at the Games did not go as planned. Shortly after Tokyo 2020, Manu Bhaker became the junior world champion in the women's 10m air pistolat Lima and did win the women's 25m pistol silver at the 2022 Cairo World Championships and a gold in the same event at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Training base: DR. KARNI SINGH SHOOTING RANGE, NEW DELHI

Birthplace: JHAJJAR, HARYANA

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Himanshu Pathak