Manu Bhaker creates history, becomes first Indian woman shooter to win an Olympic medal

Manu clinched bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event, which is also the first medal for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics

Manu Bhaker showing her bronze medal.

Khel Today Bureau

Paris: Indian shooter Manu Bhaker finished 3rd and, in the process, clinched the bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event, which is also the first medal for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics.This is India’s first medal in shooting since London Olympic Games 2012.

Manu finished the final round with a score of 221.7. The Indian could have been in the gold medal encounter but she registered just 0.1 point lesser than the silver medalist in the 6th shoot-off at Stage 2. That made her settle for the 3rd place finish. 

Korea’s Kim Yeji eventually won the silver while Oh Ye Jin won the gold with an Olympic record. 

Manu became 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 is also India’s first-ever Olympic medallist in the 10m Air Pistol event.

Manu Bhaker is 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:

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.

Manu Bhaker in Paris.

Key Government Intervention (Paris cycle)

Assistance for ammunition.

Assistance towards weapon servicing, pellet and ammunition testing and barrel selection.

Assistance towards training with personal coach Mr. Jaspal Rana at Luxembourg for the preparation towards OG 2024

Financial Assistance (Paris cycle)

Under TOPS: Rs. 28,78,634/-

Under Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC): Rs. 1,35,36,155/-

Achievements

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

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

Asian Shooting Championship, Changwon (2023)- bagged Paris Games 2024 Quota with 5th finish in 25m Pistol.

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

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

World University Games, Chengdu (2021) – 2 Gold Medals in 10m Air pistol individual and womens team event.

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 pistol at 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.