Paris Olympics: Shooting delivers third medal for India as Swapnil Kusale strikes bronze

On a rainy match-day morning, Indian rifle shooter Swapnil Kusale fixed himself a cup of hot tea but couldn’t soak in the delightful weather. “I woke up with butterflies in my stomach,” he said. “I love tea, and hoped it would calm me down.”

He wasn’t alone in grappling with anxiety. Far away from the Olympics shooting venue at Chateauroux, in New Delhi’s CR Park, Kusale’s coach Deepali Deshpande was consoling another ward of hers, Arjun Babuta, who had returned from Paris after experiencing one of Olympics’ cruellest fates: missing a medal by a margin finer than a pinhead.

In his 10m final earlier in the week, Babuta dropped from the silver medal position to fourth place in the final few shots. When the same happened to Kusale on Thursday, dropping from second place to fourth, Deshpande was bracing for another consolation speech.

But it won’t be needed. Instead, when Kusale called Deshpande, his “second mother”, a few happy tears flowed in between the joyous screams.

India’s Swapnil Kusale celebrates after winning the bronze medal in the 50m rifle 3 positions men’s final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Kusale, a railway ticket collector, was now an Olympic medallist. The 28-year-old, who idolises M S Dhoni because of a “relatable life story”, held his breath and controlled his pounding heart to avoid heartbreak and win a bronze medal in the 50m rifle 3-position — an event dubbed as the “Test match of shooting” because of the wide range of skills it tests.

On a day of mixed fortunes, where serious medal contenders — Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in badminton doubles and Nikhat Zareen in boxing fell by the wayside — it was a shooter who took India’s medal tally to three bronze.

For Kusale, the journey to the podium hadn’t been easy. His father, a school teacher from Kolhapur, had taken a bank loan to support Kusale’s sporting dream. The talented shooter with modest means would ration the bullets he used for training, since they cost Rs 120 each and it was “a huge sum” for the family. Now, these are details in the fairytale that Kusale would be asked to repeat by the media once he returns home.

Showing his mastery in shooting from kneeling, prone and standing positions, Kusale tallied a total of 451.4. He finished behind Chinese gold medallist Liu Yukun and Serhiy Kulish, the Ukrainian shooter whose medal hopes in Tokyo three years ago were dashed most bizarrely when he, by mistake, shot someone else’s target.

India’s Swapnil Kusale competes in the 50m rifle 3 positions men’s qualification round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Chateauroux, France. AP/PTI(AP07_31_2024_000185A)

On Thursday, Kulish shot to redemption and Kusale made sure India enjoyed another historic day at the shooting ranges of Chateauroux.

Last Sunday, Manu Bhaker became the first Indian woman shooter to win a medal at the Olympics. A couple of days later, the 22-year-old became the first Indian since Independence to win two medals at the same Olympics.

Kusale’s bronze will also go down as one for the history books — for the first time, India has won three medals in one sport at the same Olympics.

It’s fitting that it was shooting that achieved this record — India’s medal rush in this century was started by shooters, who have also now redeemed themselves at the Paris Games, returning with three medals after back-to-back ducks in Rio and Tokyo. That Kusale would be among those to stand on the podium was a pleasant surprise.

His wildly oscillating fortunes during Thursday’s hour-long final was, in a way, a synopsis of Kusale’s entire career: Never a favourite, just doing enough to stay in contention and riding on the wave of unpredictability.

A man of very few words, Kusale has spent his entire career playing second fiddle to others and been the “nearly man” of Indian shooting. Not having a “strong mentality” led to him missing the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. His mental fragility came to the fore once again at the Asian Games where, after leading the entire final, one bad shot at the end had him finishing in fourth place. Even at the domestic selection trials for the Paris Olympics team, he almost bottled his chances after a very poor final round. But his scores in the earlier selection trials were good enough for him to sneak into the team.

After Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh’s spectacular performances, India was on a high yet again as Swapnil Kusale won bronze medal in the men’s 50m 3P.

Kusale began Thursday’s final with a poor score of 9.6 — the lowest amongst the eight men in medal contention. He paused for a moment and took a long, deep breath. “Everyone’s heartbeat increases (in such moments). I just kept focusing on my breath. Kept calm and shot,” he said.

Taking control of his nerves, he began his slow-burning assault on the podium.

After the first of the three parts of the final — where the athletes kneel and shoot — he was in sixth place. By the time the second round, prone, concluded, he had climbed up a spot to fifth. Ironically, his actual push for the medal came in a position that’s considered his weakness — standing, the segment where his Asian Games podium hopes crashed.

Kusale rose to second and dropped to fourth as he wrestled with the demons in his head. But he blocked all the noise, within himself and inside the hall, and reminded himself of his long journey from a Kolhapur village famous for organic farming to the army town 300 km from Paris, via Pune.

“I just kept thinking about all my hard work over the years and kept shooting,” says Kusale, who left his home aged 10 and joined residential government schools in Pune where he was introduced to shooting. “I was not focusing on the scores.”

He heard the motley Indian contingent in the hall create a din and wanted to give something back to them. “I wanted to see them happy and do something for them.”

He did. Those present saw the Indian flag go up at the shooting range for the third time at these Olympics.

Tattooed on Kusale’s back is a religious verse that evangelises immortality. On Thursday, he showed spine to seal his spot alongside the immortals of Indian sport.

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