Manu Bhaker Paris Olympics 2024: Indian shooter Manu Bhaker has created history. He won the bronze medal with his stellar performance in the Paris Olympics 2024. Manu has become the first Indian woman to win any medal in shooting. Manu Bhaker’s journey to this medal has not been easy.
This is Manu Bhaker’s second Olympics. He made his debut in the last Tokyo Olympics 2020, but his pistol broke during the 10 meter air pistol qualification round. For this reason she could not win the medal last time. Apart from this, the mixed team had also missed out on getting medals in 10 meter pistol and 25 meter pistol events.
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The only Indian athlete to participate in multiple events
22-year-old Manu Bhaker is competing in the women’s 10 meter air pistol, 10 meter air pistol mixed team and women’s 25 meter pistol events in the Paris 2024 Olympic shooting competition. She is the only athlete from the 21-member Indian shooting team to compete in multiple individual events.
Manu had secured the Paris 2024 Olympic quota for India after finishing fifth in the women’s 25m pistol event at the 2023 Asian Shooting Championships. Manu Bhaker is the youngest Indian to win a gold medal in the ISSF World Cup. She is also the Commonwealth Games champion in the women’s 10m air pistol event at Gold Coast 2018, where she won the top medal with a CWG record.
Manu Bhaker is the first Indian shooter and also the first female athlete from the country to win a gold medal in the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires 2018. She had won the women’s 25 meter team pistol title in the Asian Games last year.
Left boxing after eye injury and started shooting
Manu Bhakar, born in Jhajjar, Haryana, took part in tennis, skating and boxing competitions during her school days. Apart from this, he also participated in a martial art called ‘Than Ta’ which won medals at the national level. Manu got injured on his eye during boxing, after which his journey in boxing ended. But Manu had a different passion for sports, due to which she managed to become an excellent shooter.
Manu decided to pursue a career in shooting at the age of 14, when the Rio Olympics 2016 had just ended. Within a week of this, he asked his father to bring him a shooting pistol. His always supportive father Ram Kishan Bhakar bought him a gun and that was a decision which one day made Manu Bhakar an Olympian.