All Eyes On 20YO Ramita Jindal As She Shoots For A Medal In Her Debut Olympics

20-year-old Ramita Jindal had an exemplary run at her debut Olympics as she made it to the 10m Air Rifle finals at the Paris Games 2024. She will now aim for a medal on July 29. Ramita is a shooter and has been practising the sport since her school days. At only 20 years old, she is participating in the Mixed 10m Air Rifle and Women's 10m Air Rifle events at the Olympics. Ramita's first qualifying Olympic event took place on July 27.

Ramita Jindal's Journey To The Olympics

All the way from Haryana, Ramita's shooting journey began around the age of 13. Her initial training began around 2016 when she joined the Karan Shooting Academy in Ladwa, her hometown, according to an article by The Statesman. She started out with just a couple of hours of practice per day, which increased gradually as she developed more interest and passion to pursue the sport professionally. 

Evidently, all the hard work paid off when she rose to world rank 11 for the 10m Air Rifle event. In addition to this, she is a gold and silver medallist in several international tournaments, including two gold medals at the 2022 World Championship in Cairo and one in Baku at the 2022 ISSF World Cup. She won the silver at the 2022 ISSF World Cup in Changwon. 

Perhaps one of her biggest achievements was at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, where she brought home a silver medal in the 10m air rifle team event and a bronze in women's 10m air rifle. 

She is currently a third-year college student enrolled at Hansraj College of Delhi University in the Bachelor of Commerce course. It is believed that her father had an influential role to play in the progress of her career and recognized her passion for the sport, according to Khelo Now.

Jindal In The Finals Of Paris Olympics

After all of this and more years of training, Ramita is now at the 2024 Olympics. At one of the concluding trials for the Olympics, Ramita shot an almost perfect shot, which was an early sign of her Olympic debut.  

If she wins a medal in the 2024 Olympic event, she will be the second Indian woman to bring home an Olympic shooting medal in history after Manu Bhaker. 

She earlier told Times of India, ''Winning a medal was not my target but I have been preparing for a long time. I have been playing World Cups and World Championships. I have been experimenting with things and applying in these matches and I am happy that it had gone well."