Shooting sensation Manu Bhaker finished fourth in the women's 25m singles event on August 3, narrowly missing a third medal for India at the Paris Olympics. Earlier in the Games, the 22-year-old made history as the first-ever athlete from independent India to win two medals in a single Olympics. On July 30, Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh won bronze in the 10m Air Pistol mixed doubles. On July 28, she achieved another milestone of becoming India's first woman shooter to win an Olympic medal with a Bronze in the Women's 10m pistol singles event.
Bhaker additionally made history as the first Indian female shooter to reach a final at the Olympics for an individual event in the last two decades. It was in 2004 at Athens that Suma Shirur had reached the 10m Air Rifle event.
While Bhaker missed a medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021 owing to a pistol malfunction, she took her aim at victory for this year's Games. The Haryana-native athlete's mother revealed that she spent 8-9 hours at the shooting range each day, preparing herself for the feat. Impressively, Bhaker has won a staggering 15 gold medals in her career so far at all levels.
Who Is Manu Bhaker?
Manu Bhaker belongs to the Goria village in the Jhajjar district of Haryana. She excelled as an athlete right from her teenage years and participated in sports including tennis, boxing, skating, and Huyen Langlon, Manipuri martial art. She went on the win several medals in her distinctive sports and eventually decided to take up competitive shooting.
It's popularly known that Bhaker, with undeterred support from her family, took up airgun shooting and achieved her first feat internationally at the Asian Junior Championships 2017 bagging the silver medal. Bhaker grew popular due to her impeccable performance at the National Games held in Kerala the same year as she grabbed nine gold medals and defeated record holder Heena Sidhu in one of the games.
In 2018, Bhaker represented India at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup (ISSF) and emerged as a gold medalist twice. With this, Bhaker became the youngest Indian to win a gold medal at the ISSF. Bhaker also created an exceptional record at her maiden Commonwealth Games as she won the gold medal in the women's 10 m pistol category at the Games in 2018 at the age of 16.
Youngest Indian athlete to win gold at Youth Olympics
Bhaker became the flag bearer for the Indian squad at the Youth Olympics Games held in Argentina in 2018. True to her never-ending streak, Bhaker, at 16, once again grabbed gold and became the first Indian shooter and first female athlete to grab gold at the Youth games. Whether it was international competitions, Asian Games or participation on the home turf, Manu Bhaker has emerged as a strong contender in every event she has attacked.
Bhaker also qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 after she participated and won in the 10m pistol mixed event in 2019 at the Munich ISSF World Cup. Her recent achievement of grabbing four gold medals at the National Shooting competitions in Madhya Pradesh has added to her becoming one of India's youngest and most successful pistol shooters.
Bhaker won gold at the 2023 World Championships in Baku in the 25m pistol team event. is a proud recipient of the 2020 Arjuna Award in the category of shooting. Arjuna Awards are given out by the Government of India to athletes who have had successful outstanding performances in Sports and Games. It is the second-highest sporting honour in the country.
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