With a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, gold medals at the World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Youth Olympic Games, Manu Bhaker has become the most successful Indian woman shooter in history at a very young age. Manu Bhaker became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in shooting with a bronze at Paris 2024 in the women’s 10m air pistol event. It came a day after she became the first female shooter to reach an Olympic final in an individual event in 20 years. A pistol malfunction had denied Manu Bhaker a shot at a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the same event.
Days later, she became the first athlete from independent India to win two medals at the same edition of the Olympics after she claimed another bronze in the 10m air pistol mixed team event with Sarabjot Singh. Even as a teenager, Manu Bhaker quickly rose through the ranks to become India’s latest shooting star.
Early Life and Education
Manu Bhaker was born in Goria village jhajjar district in Haryana. Her father, Ram Kishan Bhaker, works as a chief engineer in the Merchant Navy, while her mother Sumedha Bhaker, a masters degree holder in sanskrit, and was the principal of the school at Goria, and hails from an educationist family of Kalali village in Charkhi dadri district. Manu Bhaker did her schooling at “Universal Higher Senior Secondary School” at Goria village, which was started by her grandfather Raj Karan.
During her schooling, she participated in multiple sports such as tennis, skating, Manipuri martial-art thang-ta and boxing , earning several medals at the national games in these sports. As a 14-year-old, Bhaker decided to focus on shooting sport, and with an investment of Rs. 1,50,000 by her father, she decided to take up competitive shooting. Her favorite foods have been fresh fruits as well as fresh raita (yogurt), while for an occasional sweet dish, she prefers Churma.
Career
In 2016, Bhaker started training with her first coach, Anil Jakhar and prepared for the junior world tournaments. She earned her first success at the international level when she won the silver medal at the 2017 Asian Junior Championships. In the 2017 National games held at Kerela, Bhaker won nine gold medals and defeated multiple World Cup medalist Heena Sindhu and broke Sidhu’s record of 240.8 points, scoring 242.3 points in the final.
In the 2018 International Shooting Sports Fedration World Cup held at Guadalajara Mexico. Bhaker won the gold medal in the Women’s 10-meter air pistol, defeating Mexico’s Alejandra Zavala, a two-time champion. Bhaker scored 237.5 the final match against Zavalaa, who scored 237.1.
Bhaker won her second gold medal at the World Cup in the 10-meter Air Pistol mixed team event. She was paired with fellow countryman Om Parkash Mitharval. The pair shot a score of 476.1 points, defeating Sandra Reitz and Cristion who scored 475.2.
Bhaker 2018 Commonwealth Games in women’s 10m air pistol qualifying round and qualified for the finals. In the final round of the women’s 10m air pistol event during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, she secured the gold medal with setting a new Commonwealth Games record of 240.9 points.
In 2018 Aisan Games, she scored a game’s record score of 593 in the qualification round of 25m Air pistol event. But she failed to win a medal there, as she finished 6th in the final. Eventually, her compatriot Rahi Sarnobat clinched the Gold in this event.
At the Youth Olympics 2018, Manu Bhaker shot 236.5 to stand at the top of the points table in the women’s 10m air pistol event. The Indian flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympics is also the World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medalist. The 16-year-old Manu became the first shooter from India and the first female athlete from India to grab a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games.
In 2018, national pistol coach Jaspal Rana was the mentor for Bhaker and said that “ Manu is mentally very strong” and we need to groom talented shooters like her for the 2020 Olympics.
In February 2019 she won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at 2019 ISSF World Cup in Delhi.
In May 2019 she qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 10m pistol event via a fourth place finish at the Munich ISSF World Cup. This came days after her pistol jammed in the finals of the 25m pistol event when she was leading, eventually forcing her to forfeit due to her gun not being able to fire.
In all the four Pistol & Rifle ISSF World Cups in 2019, she won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed event with Saurabh Chaudhry as her partner, making the pair a strong contender for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
2021–2024
In the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, Bhaker missed the finals for both the 10m and 25m air pistol, and partering Saurabh Chaudhary, in the mixed 10m air pistol team, in spite of finishing the qualifying round with the highest score, finished only eighth in the next round and missed the final.
She won the team gold for India in the women’s 25m pistol team event at the 2022 Aisan Games, along Esha Singh with and Rhythrm Sangwan.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Bhaker won two bronze medals. First, she won bronze in the Women 10 metre air pistol event, becoming the first female shooter from India to win a medal at any Olympics. Next, she won another bronze medal in the mixed 10 metre air pistol team event, wherein she partnered with fellow team mate, Sarabhjot Singh. She became the first Indian to win two medals at an Olympics since Independence of India.
Advertising and Legal actions
After winning two bronze medals at the2024 Paris Olymics , Manu Bhaker’s management, IOS Sports & Entertainment, took legal action against several brands for unauthorized use of her image in advertisements. This was in line with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) guidelines, which require explicit permission for such use.
Awards and Achivments
- Best Young Athlete Award 2019, at Sportstar Aces Award.
- Arjuna Award,2020.
- Manu was leter announced as the Flag Bearer for the Indian Contigent at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olymics.
