A pistol malfunction cut short the stint of one of India's brightest medal hopes at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Now, three years later, Manu Bhaker is leading India's 21-strong shooting contingent in Paris with a lot of hopes pinned on them to get India off to a glorious start at the multi-sport event. She was just 19 then. However, with a lot more life experience and better preparation, Bhaker will be representing India in three different events, the most for an athlete amongst the 117-member Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics.
Out of the 117-strong contingent for India, a bit truncated from the 121-member one at the Tokyo Games, 47 athletes are women, which makes up for 40 per cent of the contingent. Only two of them will be taking part in multiple individual events.
Bhaker, after a disappointment at Tokyo, has been at the Games before and recently in an interview mentioned that she will take a lot from that experience given how mentally challenging it was after she returned home empty-handed. Bhaker had lost the joy of being an athlete and felt like she was in a 9 to 5 job before all of it changed when she reunited with her long-time coach Jaspal Rana and two are solid team and hopefully that keeps her in good stead for the Games.
Indian shooters can take heart from the fact that 22 medals were won by the 33-member contingent at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. However, 11 of those events will not be part of the Olympics and hence a bigger challenge. Of the number of events which are there in the Olympics, Bhaker will be there in three, two individual - women’s 10m air pistol and women’s 25m pistol and one in the 10m air pistol mixed team along with Sarabjot Singh.
Parul Chaudhary, the sprinter is the only other athlete who is set to feature in two different individuals. Chaudhary, who shot to fame at the Asian Games last year, won Gold in 5000m and silver in the 3000m steeplechase. Chaudhary will be taking part in both those events in Paris and apart from Neeraj Chopra and Murali Sreeshankar, is one of the biggest medal hopes at the event.
The athletics contingent makes up 29 of them taking part at the Paris Games and India is really hopeful of multiple medals, beyond just Neeraj Chopra.
