By The 22-year-old Manu Bhaker has etched her name in history as India’s first woman shooter to win an Olympic medal. Despite her indifferent feelings towards visiting the Eiffel Tower again, she will bring back a piece of it in her bronze medal. Like all Paris Olympic medals, hers contains fragments of iron from the monument’s renovations. This unique memento symbolizes her extraordinary achievement.
Manu’s journey to the podium was nothing short of dramatic. With a gentle pull of the trigger, the former prodigy who burst into the limelight at 16, ended India’s 12-year wait for an Olympic shooting medal. She narrowly missed a gold or silver by just 0.1 points, allowing South Korea’s Yeji Kim to surpass her. However, the realization of winning the bronze soon dawned on her, replacing her initial disappointment with a broad, uncontainable smile. Competing against a high-class field including world champions and Olympic medallists from South Korea and China, Manu held her own and never seemed out of place.
Manu Bhaker’s Historic Journey to Olympic Bronze
Her coach, Jaspal Rana, was overcome with emotion, leaving the finals hall with tears in his eyes right after the last shot. The Indian fans in the stands erupted in celebration, while the national team coaches and officials exchanged hugs and congratulatory gestures. This moment was the culmination of years of hard work and waiting. Shooting, heavily invested in by India, has produced a pool of talented players who, despite winning globally, faced an Olympic drought until Manu’s triumph.
Manu has been a symbol of both the highs and lows of Indian shooting. Since her rise to fame with a Commonwealth Games gold at 16, her fearlessness has mirrored the emergence of young Indian talent in the sport. However, she also became the face of India’s failure at the Tokyo Olympics, where her underperformance and subsequent public fallout with her coach Jaspal Rana seemed to jeopardize her promising career.
Post-Tokyo, Manu felt disillusioned with shooting and considered quitting. However, after a brief hiatus, she rediscovered her passion for the sport and reconciled with Rana. This renewed partnership bore fruit, as demonstrated by her groundbreaking performance in Paris. Her story from Tokyo turmoil to Paris poise epitomizes resilience and determination, cementing her legacy as a trailblazer in Indian shooting.
