On a Sunday morning in 2021, Manu Bhaker stood in anguish. There were stress lines etched on her forehead and the shoulders had dropped as her coach tried to console the athlete.
She had just failed to qualify for the final of the women’s 10m air pistol event at the Tokyo Olympics. A failure in performance would have its fair share of disappointment. But this time it was her trusted weapon that had let her down.
On July 28, another Sunday, there was another brief look of disappointment on Bhaker’s face.
Now 22, she was in the women’s 10m air pistol final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She had just overtaken her opponent with an impressive shot of 10.3. The opponent needed a score of at least 10.5 to overtake Bhaker, and managed just that.
Bhaker looked upwards, unsmiling, and sighed away her strife to the sound of wild applause from the stands at the Chateauroux shooting range. Bhaker did lose that one-on-one matchup against South Korea’s Kim Yeji, but she had won an Olympic bronze medal.
The first Olympic medal won by an Indian woman in shooting. The first shooting medal won by an Indian at the Olympics since London 2012. The first medal won by an Indian at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“The feeling is surreal,” she said to the official broadcaster through a measured smile. “I’m really grateful that I could win a bronze for India. Maybe better next time.”
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It was only once she stood on the podium that she would allow herself to truly let the emotions loose. There was a wide smile on the face of the shooter who had experienced the harshest of realities in elite sport just three years ago in this very competition. But now, with a bronze medal that included a piece of the fabled Eiffel Tower, the smile told one simple story.
Bhaker’s redemption arc is complete.
As a teenager in 2018, Bhaker had announced herself on the international stage with a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, beating compatriot and former world No 1 Heena Sidhu for the top spot. Since then, her stock simply kept on rising to the point that she was expected to medal in Tokyo.
In Tokyo, only one of the highly fancied Indian shooters (Saurabh Chaudhary) managed to make it to the final. Bhaker, however, had the stomach to soak in the disappointment and building herself back up to the point that she was ready to try and bury the ghosts from Tokyo in Paris.
In the French capital, she is one of four Indian shooters who had competed in Tokyo. She earned her spot after acing the long and gruelling national trials.
The pressure on her in Paris was weighed by the burden of a 12-year wait.
From Athens 2004 to London 2012, Indian shooters had won medals at each edition of the Olympics. There were hopes in Rio 2016, but nothing materialised. There were greater expectations in Tokyo, but once again the team failed to return with a medal.
That failure, asserted chef-de-mission Gagan Narang, who had won bronze in London 2012, is what pushed Bhaker to greater heights this time.
“The last Olympics was disappointing, but I think she fuelled her fire within from that competition and came back stronger,” Narang said to the broadcaster.
“When I won the medal in London, I had a huge monkey off my back. I think Indian shooting has another monkey off the back today because of Manu. She really did hold her nerve.”
In her celebrations and in her words, Bhaker seemed like she was still keeping her emotions in check, her nerve intact. The 2024 Olympics aren’t over for her just yet after all.
She will be competing later in the women’s 25m pistol event as well as the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
More often than not, Bhaker does keep a stoic expression on her face – she was the least animated athlete on the podium as well.
It was as if she was already mentally preparing for the next contest.
“I can’t explain how good I feel, but at the same time, I have many more matches to shoot tomorrow, and then day after,” she added.
The body language had definitely changed. The monkey is off her back.
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