Pranav Mathur, Pune
Manu Bhaker clinched a bronze at the Paris Olympics 2024 and kicked off India’s medal tally this year becoming India’s first woman shooter to win a medal in shooting at the biggest sporting stage of all. This historic feat comes after 12 years of drought in shooting, after Vijay Kumar who sealed a silver medal for the country.
In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which took place in 2021 due to COVID-19) Manu Bhaker faced a technical malfunction which forced her out of the medal run. This setback affected her enough to contemplate retirement at the age of 19. She expressed her joy of overcoming the difficult times and procuring a redemption in the form of a bronze medal.
After qualifying with 580 under her belt, she finished third in the final standings scoring a 221.7 and securing the bronze medal. She was the third woman from India to enter the final round of a shooting event, but became the only one who actually converted this feat into an even bigger one. Kim Yeji eliminated Manu from the final round, even after the latter was trailing by just 0.1. Kim went on to win silver as she missed out on gold behind her Korean teammate Oh Ye Jin, who broke the Olympic record with a total of 243.2.
“As soon as the qualification was over, I didn’t know how things were going to be,” said a fairly satisfied Manu. She emphasised on her training and the hard work she put in after the emphatic disappointment in 2021. After that, albeit in a different category, Manu bounced back with a gold in the ISSF World Cup, and a silver in the 10m Air Pistol category. Her confidence only went upwards as she then procured a gold medal in the 2022 Asian Games, a silver in the 2022 World Championships and a gold in the 2023 World Championships. But the Olympics is a much bigger stage than any other. When asked about how she kept her nerves, she simply replied saying that she read the Gita a lot, and what was going through her head were its teachings. An elated Manu Bhaker redeems herself after three years, and wishes that India wins even more medals.