Double Olympic medalist Indian shooter Manu Bhaker encapsulated her journey in a picture following her successful campaign at the recently concluded Paris Olympics 2024.
Manu Bhaker clinched two bronze medals in women's 10m air pistol and the mixed team 10m air pistol with fellow Indian shooter Sarabjot Singh. With this, the 22-year-old shooter from Haryana became the first Indian athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Summer Games.
Bhaker also joined Sushil Kumar, PV Sindhu and Neeraj Chopra in the elusive list of athletes from independent India to win two medals at the Olympics. After achieving historic feat at the Paris Olympics, Manu Bhaker looked back at her journey of achieving her dream of winning an Olympic medal for India.
Taking to her X handle (formerly Twitter), Bhaker posted a collage where she highlighted her journey from being young shooter from Haryana to becoming Olympic medalist.
Along with the collage, the 22-year-old wrote, "How it started vs how it's going, and Grateful for everything in between."
Manu Bhaker picked shooting as her hobby but soon discovered her passion for the sport, which propelled to pursue it professionally. Apart from shooting, Bhaker tried hands at various sports including tennis, boxing, skating and Manipuri martial art Thang-Ta and won several medals at the national level in these sports.
However. shooting became her true calling, where she excelled well and received recognition at the international stage. Bhaker was first shot to fame when she became the youngest shooter to clinch a gold medal at the 2018 ISSF World Cup. That year, Bhaker won the gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympics.
'Sports life is a beautiful life': Manu Bhaker
Manu Bhaker has called for students to take up sports as their career options while emphasising the importance of working hard and dreaming big. She added that sports receive all the financial support that it required from the government and various sports organizations.
"If you can dream big, you can achieve big. So, always start by dreaming big. I always tell myself that no matter if I win or lose in any competition, I’ll always be very confident and hold myself high and together, and be very confident." Bhaker said at Velammal Nexus School in Chennai.
"We have many career options. You don’t have to become a doctor or an engineer. Sports life is a beautiful life. From financial support to any kind of it, you get everything in sports,” she added.
