Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. Shooters were at the top of the list of those who raised the medal flag for India in 3 consecutive Olympic Games. The series that Rajyavardhan Rathore started with a silver medal in Athens Olympics continued in 2012 with medals by Gagan Narang (bronze) and Ravi Kumar (silver). Amidst all this, Abhinav Bindra created history by winning a gold medal in 2008. That is, shooters have been the reason for India's success but in the last 2 consecutive Olympics, no shooter has been able to hit his target, which has surprised everyone. Will the same situation happen in Paris as well? The responsibility for this will largely be on 22-year-old Manu.

Manu Bhaker became famous as soon as she arrived

When legends like Bindra, Rathore, Narang and Ravi Kumar won medals for India in the Olympics, it gave birth to a new generation of shooters. Suddenly a line of young shooters emerged in the country. Manu Bhaker was one of the brightest stars among the shooters who were at the forefront of this line. Some strong talents have also emerged in shooting from Haryana, which is famous for wrestling and boxing, and the newest and brightest talent among them has proved to be Manu Bhaker, who was born in Jhajjar district. As is the trend in Haryana, Manu also participated in many sports in the initial days but then she became fond of pistol shooting.

Before shining at the senior level, every player has to make his mark at the junior level. Manu's story is no different and she achieved her first big success by winning a silver medal in the Junior Asian Championship. After this, her brilliance was seen in the National Games 2017, where she defeated a veteran shooter like Heena Sidhu and won a total of 9 gold medals. This was the time when apart from Manu, young players like Saurabh Chaudhary, Mehuli Ghosh, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar were emerging in shooting. Among them, Manu made her mark the fastest and performed brilliantly in the ISSF World Cup in 2018. Here Manu won gold medals in the 10 meter air pistol and 10 meter air pistol mixed event.

Broken heart at Tokyo Olympics

In 2018 itself, she won gold in the 10 meter air pistol event in the Youth Olympics. Then Manu also created a stir by winning gold in the Commonwealth Games 2018. This sequence of success continued in 2019 as well, where she along with Saurabh Chaudhary won gold in the 10 meter mixed team event in 4 consecutive World Cups. After such a performance, Manu was expected to perform well in the Tokyo Olympics, but the break that was put on the whole world due to the corona virus in 2020, its effect was probably seen on Manu and the rest of the shooters as well and the Indian shooters failed completely in Tokyo. It was more disappointing for Manu because her pistol suddenly malfunctioned in the 10 meter air pistol event. This affected her performance and she could not qualify for the final.

We will equalize the score by winning 2 gold

This was the time when apart from the shooting range failure, Manu was in controversies for different reasons. Her form was also not good and in such a situation many doubts were being raised about the Paris Olympics. Still, in the last one year, Manu made a strong comeback and qualified for Paris. In 2023, she won gold in the 25 meter air pistol at the World Championship in Baku. This year she won the 25 meter gold in the women's team event at the Asian Games. Now Manu has a chance to overcome the pain of Tokyo. In Paris, she will present India's claim in the 10 meter air pistol and 25 meter air pistol events. Here the country's hopes will be pinned on her and Manu herself will try to work her 'magic'.