Paris Olympics, 2024: Shooter Swapnil Kusale made history at the 2024 Paris Olympics by becoming the first shooter from India to win a medal in the 50m Rifle 3P competition. Kusale finished behind China (gold) and Ukraine (silver) with a score of 451.4.
SWAPNIL KUSALE
Shooter Swapnil Kusale, who placed third in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions final at the National Shooting Center in Châteauroux on Thursday, earned India’s third medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. In the face of stiff competition, Kusale gave an outstanding performance, placing third in the final with a score of 451.4 points. Swapnil has now made Olympic history as the first Indian shooter to earn a medal in the men’s 50-meter rifle three positions competition. Additionally, this is the first Olympics edition in which the Indian shooting team has won three medals.
Competitors compete in kneeling, prone, and standing positions in the 3P event, or Three-Position Rifle Shooting.
SWAPNIL’S KUSALE HISTORY
Born in 1995 into an agrarian family, Swapnil Kusale is employed by the Pune Railway Division as a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE). After a year of rigorous physical training in Maharashtra’s Krida Prabhodini primary sports program, Kusale decided to pursue shooting as his sport, thanks to his father’s enrollment.
He took home a gold medal in the junior division of the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait in 2015, where he competed in the 50m rifle prone 3. He also won the 50m rifle prone event in the 59th National Shooting Championship in Tughlakabad, defeating Chain Singh and Gagan Narang. At the 61st National Championship in Thiruvananthapuram, Kusale repeated this triumph by taking home the gold medal in the 50-meter rifle three-position competition.
3rd MEDAL IN ROW FOR INDIA
Notably, India won its third medal in the shooting event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Manu Bhaker became the first Indian shooter to earn an Olympic medal on Monday when she won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol competition. On Tuesday, Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh created history once more when they won bronze in the mixed team 10m pistol competition. Manu made history as the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the same Olympics after independence.