Manu Bhaker wins India’s first medal of Paris Olympics: Who is history-making shooter

Here’s our briefing on Manu Bhaker, the pistol shooter who has broken India’s duck at the Paris Olympics:

Manu Bhaker’s early tryst with shooting

Born in Haryana’s Jhajjar, Manu Bhaker took to sports like tennis, skating and boxing when she was 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 years of age. It was just after the 2016 Rio Olympics had ended. And she loved it.

A young Manu Bhaker with a medal in her school days; Manu in martial arts dress. (PHOTOS courtesy Manu Bhaker’s family)

How Manu Bhaker became teenage sensation

While 2018 was Manu Bhaker’s breakthrough year as a shooter, she had already given glimpses of her calibre a year earlier. At the 2017 National Shooting Championships, Manu Bhaker stunned Olympian and former world No. 1 Heena Sidhu. Manu Bhaker shot a record score of 242.3 to erase Sidhu’s mark to win the 10m Air Pistol final. A year later, Manu Bhaker became a teenage sensation by 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, Manu 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.

Heartbreak at the Tokyo Olympics

A lot was expected from Manu Bhaker at the Tokyo Olympics, even though it was her first Olympics. However, her debut did not go as planned. Her gun malfunctioned during her event, leaving her distraught, She eventually ended the Tokyo Olympics three years ago without a medal despite being one of the favourites in several events.

Manu Bhaker relied on Gita verses

The 22-year-old Manu Bhaker’s bronze medal at the Paris Olympics came 1099 days after her heartbreak at the Tokyo Olympics. As The Indian Express‘ Nitin Sharma reports, Manu Bhaker parents, Ramkishan and Sumedha, recited hymns from the Gita with her during her difficult times.

“Manu’s mother often recites shlokas from the Gita to her and one of the verses which she often recites is ‘yaḥ sarvatrānabhisnehas tat tat prāpya śhubhāśhubham, nābhinandati na dveṣhṭi tasya prajñā pratiṣhṭhitā’ which means one who remains detached under all conditions, and is neither delighted by good fortune nor dejected by tribulation, he is a sage with perfect knowledge,” her father told The Indian Express.

Manu Bhaker wanted to quit the sport after Tokyo

After that heartbreak at the Tokyo Olympics, Manu Bhaker had not even looked at her pistol for nearly 25 days. She now reveals that the heartbreak of not even making it to any final – “one of the very sour memories of my life,” she says – had convinced her that she ‘done’ with the sport.

But when Manu Bhaker was on a vacation with her family at a beachside resort in Cherai, Kerala to recover from the Tokyo Olympics shock, she rediscovered her love for shooting.

As The Indian Express’ Mihir Vasavda reports, Manu Bhaker was in her room all by herself while her family was out sightseeing. “Suddenly, I found myself standing in front of a blank, white wall holding a kettle filled with water,” Manu laughs. It’s what shooters call holding practice – to test the stability and strength of their arm. “That was the time when I was like, ‘I am getting restless, I really need to get back’.”

Manu Bhaker had made history at Paris 2024 even before winning bronze

Manu Bhaker became the 1st Indian female shooter to reach the Olympic final of an individual event in the last 20 years! The last time an Indian woman was in the final at an Olympics was when Suma Shirur had reached the final of the 10m Air Rifle event in Athens 2004. Manu Bhaker also became the first Indian woman to qualify for the 10m air pistol final round at any Olympics.