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Journalism of Courage
In the heart of the historic city of Paris, the Olympic Shooting Range stands as a silent battlefield where marksmen and markswomen from diverse backgrounds converge with a singular goal: to hit the bullseye and etch their names in Olympic history. Among them are seasoned veterans and young prodigies, each with a story to tell and a dream to fulfill .
After Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh’s spectacular performances, India was on a high yet again for Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Swapnil Kusale, who featured in the men’s 50m 3P, cleared the qualification round.
Kusale, a shooter from Pune on his Olympic debut, advanced to the final after finishing seventh with a score of 590-38x. Tomar, from Madhya Pradesh, on the other hand, ranked 11th with a total of 589-33x.
With both of them making it to the qualifying round, they are all set for the finals,which is scheduled for August 1 at 1pm.
“First of all, the journey to the Olympics is not a one day dream. It costs years of dedication and a decade of international tournaments. Secondly, shooting of any kind is expensive. Each bullet costs fifty bucks and Swapnil needs two hundred of them daily for his practice. With no help from the state, it gets hard for athletes,” says Akshay Ashtaputre, Swapnil Kusale’s mentor in Pune .
“Right before the Paris Olympics 2024, the Maharashtra government promised Rs 50 lakhs to the selected Olympians from the state. We haven’t received a penny till date, even after submitting all the documents for the same. I have seen Swapnil give up on a lot for his commitment to the game and to this country. A little help from the government in form of financial aid can be game changer for athletes like him,” said Ashtaputre.
Speaking to The Indian Express, young national shooters based in Pune shared their dreams of representing India at the Olympics.
Ujjwal Patil (21),a national pistol shooter and cousin of Swapnil Kusale says, “I now aspire to be a part of the Indian rifle team so that I can participate in the international event and finally aim for the big apple which is Olympics.”
Patil has been training since 2019 when he was 17 and now after getting the qualifying points at the 66th National Shooting competition in Bhopal, he has been certified as a nationally renowned shooter. For his aim towards the Olympics, he has been consistently practising for the last two years without a break while managing his academics as a BA LLB student at Fergusson College in Pune.
Patil shares how one can manage finances and get sponsored. He tells that Prabodhini in Maharashtra sponsors athletes under the age of 18. Above that, like in the case of his brother Swapnil, he explains, “In the movie MS Dhoni, we all saw that he was focusing 50 per cent of his time in the job and 50 per cent time on sports. Now, it is not like that. If your performance is consistent, you get full year holiday, just have to go once in a month for signature,you get all the equipment also. Swapnil too got a job as a TC and has been playing for the railways,” he said.
Niranjan Bhandari, a BA geography student at Fergusson College who too qualified for the nationals at the 66th National Shooting Competition in Bhopal, says, “One must have their priorities straight if they want to aim for any international tournament. Being a national shooter, there are days when I have to give up on college events or classes for my training…It’s extremely important to be headstrong about sports and have proper family support, along with finances.”
With three categories in shooting – rifles, pistol and shotgun , The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) represented a team of 21 at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“I fondly remember it was 2011 when we first came up with Guns for Glory here in Pune and didn’t see much of a response until 2012, when Gagan Narang bagged a bronze medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Since then, the number of rifle enthusiasts in our academy in Pune has only increased. Standing today, we have 80 students in our academy…among them five to six hold national-level rifle certificates and are now brushing their skills up for the upcoming Olympics,” says Kiran Khandare, 42-year-old rifle coach at Guns for Glory .
“Unlike popular sports like tennis and badminton, shooting takes a lot of patience and concentration along with hard work. While training Swaroop Unhalkar, a Maharashtra-based rifle shooter participating in 2024 Paris Paralympics, I made sure that he’s well trained to handle match pressure along with the techniques of the game,” adds Khandare who also coached the paralympian.
