Meet Manu Bhaker, The First Indian To Win Two Medals At An Olympics
Here's Bhaker's journey to finding success on the biggest sporting stage.
Manu Bhaker is on a roll at the Paris Olympics. The shooter bagged her second bronze at the 2024 Games a few days back and will return on Saturday to try and hit a hattrick.
Till now, Bhaker has been on the podium for her marksmanship in the women's 10-metre air pistol event and the mixed 10-metre air pistol team event alongside Sarabjot Singh. Later today, she will take aim in the final of the women's 25-metre air pistol event.
The Early Years
Bhaker was born on February 18, 2002, in the Goria village of Jhajjar in Haryana. Her father, Ram Kishan Bhaker, served as a chief engineer in the Merchant Navy.
Interest in varied sports came early to her, as she took part in tennis, skating, boxing, a martial arts called 'Thang Ta' and finally settled into her groove with shooting.
Bhaker has credited her father for being a pillar of support in her sporting career. A natural sportsperson, as Ram Kishan Bhaker calls her, she has also won national awards in Thang Ta and karate competitions, according to ESPN.
In the realm of shooting, she has secured 17 gold medals, four silver, and three bronze medals internationally.
Manu Bhaker's Shooting Journey
Bhaker first experienced victory in an international event at the age of 15, in the 2017 Asian Junior Championships, when she brought home a silver.
At the national games held in Kerala, she bagged nine gold medals and then went on to win the national championship by winning against Heena Sindhu, a global leading shooter, in the 10-metre air pistol final.
In the 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup, Bhaker clinched a gold in the women's 10-metre air pistol event and the mixed 10-metre air pistol event.
She set a new record in the Commonwealth Games 2018 with 240.9 points in the women's 10-metre air pistol event, and became the youngest Indian to win a gold medal at an ISSF World Cup at just 16 years of age.
Bhaker had also set a record with a new high score of 593 in the qualifiers of the 25-metre air pistol event in the 2018 Asian Games, but failed to win any laurels.
At the Youth Olympics the same year, Bhaker, who was also the flagbearer of the Indian contingent, struck gold at 236.5 in the women's 10-metre air pistol event. She became the first Indian shooter and first female athlete from the country to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympics.
Bhaker bagged gold in the 10-metre air pistol mixed team event at all four 2019 ISSF World Cups, teaming up with Saurabh Chaudhary. She won individual gold as well in the World Cup in China, and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
However, the Tokyo Olympics was an inopportune time in her career, as Bhaker faced a pistol malfunction in the 10-metre air pistol event, forcing her to step away and lose momentum. She did not bring back any medals from the event.
In a positive turn of events, Bhaker went on to become the junior shooting world champion in the women's 10-metre air pistol at the World Championship Lima, won silver at the women's 25-metre pistol at the 2022 Cairo ISSF World Championship, and a gold in the same event at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Her first individual senior triumph came in the form of a bronze in the women's 25-metre pistol event at the 2023 ISSF World Cup series in Bhopal.
The only person from the Indian shooting contingent who is scheduled to be part of multiple individual events in the Paris Olympics 2024, Bhaker clinched a bronze in the women's 10-metre air pistol event, finishing behind Oh Ye Jin of the Republic of Korea and South Korea’s Yeji Kim.
She proceeded to win the mixed 10-metre air pistol event alongside teammate Sarabjot Singh, and is poised to take part in the women's 25-metre air pistol event, which is scheduled for Aug. 3.
