Ticket collector from Pune, Swapnil Kusale wins India’s third shooting bronze at Paris Olympics

‘Right from the age of ten years, Swapnil has stayed in government residential schools and later training in Pune as well working as TTE with The Indian Railways in Pune. He rarely gets time to visit us at the village but whenever he comes, he makes sure to bring something for all of us. To see him coming home with an Olympics medal this time will be indeed a special moment for all of us and we would make him stay longer at the village this time. The village kids and elders should also see his Olympic medal,” said Kusale Senior while speaking with The Indian Express from the village.

With the village famous for organic farming as well an alcohol free village, most of the kids at the village have been sent to residential schools nearby, Kusale too was sent to the Bhogawati School In Parite, Kolhapur before he was selected for the Maharashtra’s Kreeda Prabodhini scheme at the age of 14. It meant that the youngster was initiated in shooting at first under the government scheme.

“Our village is famous for a drug-free ban apart from practising organic farming. A young Swapnil would never miss his morning run and was very fit from a young age. When he joined the residential school and later the Kreeda Prabodhini scheme, he wanted to make a name in sports. When the coaches decided to put him in shooting, he would draw us the targets and show how it’s done whenever he visited home,” says mother Anita who is now the sarpanch of the village.

A young Swapnil Kusale during the 2015 Nationals.

Four years after he started shooting, Swapnil won the title in the 50m rifle prone event in Asian Championships in 2015 before he won the national title in the same discipline edging out London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang and Chain Singh in the final. His interest in the 50m 3P event started in the fag end of his junior days.
In 2015, the Maharashtra shooter joined Indian Railways as a Ticket Collector, something which helped him also get his first own rifle.

“Swapnil and other shooters would shoot with a common rifle initially before he was allotted a rifle by the Maharashtra Government. When he joined the Indian Railways in 2015, he saved his first six month’s salary to get his first rifle costing more than Rs 3 lakhs. Later in 2017, when he finished with a bronze in the Commonwealth Championships, I asked him, how much did Gagan Narang’s gun cost. He told me it cost Rs 9 lakhs. Along with some of my savings and his salary, we got him a new rifle costing more than eight lakhs. He also understood that while rifles can cost a lot, it’s up to him to shoot well,” says Kusale Senior.

Three junior world cup appearances and a bronze in prone event in Asian Championships till 2018 would mean that Kusale would be in the Indian teams but it was not till the ISSF World Cup at Cairo in 2022, that the Indian shooter would come into limelight. Although he missed the medal due to the final shot of 8.2, he bagged the Paris quota for India with a fourth place finish.

His coach Deepali Deshpande said he would spend his time in 50m 3p events though it wasn’t his category.

“When Swapnil came to us in junior camp in 2013, he was chosen due to 10m air rifle but he would often spend his time in 50m 3p events and range. He found the .22 rifle recoil in 50m 3p events as fascinating. His prone position was strong as his body posture and fitness helped him in a balanced posture, a rarity in young athletes. In one of his early nationals, we had him enrolled in the junior 50m 3p event. He shot scores around 1167-1168 and would have gone to the senior final had we listed him in the senior event. But then he surprised us with that score in his first 3p nationals,” remembers coach Deepali Deshpande.

Father Suresh is also quick to share, “In his early days, each of the ammunition shot cost more than Rs 120-130 and he would be sometimes worried about the cost of training. But whatever number of shots she shot, he would tell me that he aims to learn quickly,” remembers the father.

Absolutely thrilled for Swapnil’s epic bronze medal win in shooting at the Paris Olympics! 🥉 Your hard work, grit, and passion have truly paid off. Competing at the highest level and coming away with a medal in shooting is a testament to your dedication and talent. You’ve made… pic.twitter.com/7jxchc5WCX

— Abhinav A. Bindra OLY (@Abhinav_Bindra) August 1, 2024

Last year, Kusale was in the lead in the 50m 3P final in Hangzhou Asian Games before a 7.6 in standing series saw him finish fourth. But the Indian paired up with Akhil Sheoran and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar to win the gold.
Apart from the pressures of shooting at the highest level, Kusale has to adjust to the new format.

With the 50m 3p event now seeing shooters shoot 20 shots each in kneeling, prone and standing series as compared to 40 shots each in the three positions earlier,  Kusale had to adjust to the new format.

“In his early senior days, he would quickly shoot close to 140-150 shots and end his round. And it worked to his advantage. He is a rhythmic shooter and once he is in good rhythm, it sets him up in the finals too. Under the new format, the time for recovery is less as it’s just two series per position. So we focused on him getting his rhythm quickly so that he makes a good start. The way he recovered in the qualification after three nine’s to shoot three consecutive ten’s to make it to the final made him in a good rhythm,” says Deshpande.

While the lactose intolerance means that Swapnil can’t have milk products, mother Anita knows what her son will ask for when he returns home with the medal. “The first thing he likes to have is bhakri and methi sabzi. He can have it three times a day and that’s what he would ask us on his return to celebrate the medal,” says the mother.