Manu Bhaker, an Indian Olympian in the shooting sport, was born on February 18, 2002. Manu Bhaker won the bronze medal in the women’s 10 metre air pistol event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, marking the first medal ever won by India in that sport. In addition, she became the youngest Indian to win a gold at the ISSF World Cup and the first woman shooter to win a medal at any Olympics.
Manu Bhaker Early Life
Manu Bhaker was born in the Haryanan village of Goria in the Jhajjar district. Ram Kishan Bhaker, her father, is employed by the Merchant Navy as a chief engineer. Manu Bhaker excelled at boxing, tennis, skating, and Huyen langlon, a Manipuri martial art, till the age of 14. She also won medals in these sports in the national games.
Manu Bhaker Career
After her father invested ₹1,50,000 in her, Bhaker made the decision to pursue competitive shooting. When she took home the silver medal from the 2017 Asian Junior Championships, she experienced her first taste of international success. In the 2017 National games held at Kerala, Bhaker won nine gold medals and overcame multiple World Cup medalist Heena Sidhu and broke Sidhu’s record of 240.8 points, scoring 242.3 points in the final.
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Bhaker defeated two-time champion Alejandra Zavala of Mexico to win the gold in the women’s 10-meter air pistol at the 2018 International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico. In the final match, Bhaker scored 237.5 while Zavalaa scored 237.1. At the age of 16, Bhaker became the youngest Indian to win a gold medal at the World Cup.
In the 10-meter Air Pistol mixed team event at the World Cup, Bhaker won her second gold medal. She was paired with her countryman Om Prakash Mitharval, and the two of them shot a score of 476.1 points, defeating Sandra Reitz and Christian Reitz who scored 475.2. Bhaker qualified for the finals of the women’s 10m air pistol event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games with a score of 388/400 points, and she set a new record of 240.9 points in the final round.
In the 25-meter air pistol qualification round of the 2018 Asian Games, she set a new record with a score of 593. However, she was not able to secure a medal in this event, finishing sixth in the final. Her countryman Rahi Sarnobat ultimately won the gold. In the women’s 10m air pistol event at the 2018 Youth Olympics, Manu Bhaker shot 236.5 to lead the points table. The 16-year-old who also happened to be the World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Manu became the first shooter and the first female athlete from India to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympics.
Following a pistol jam in the finals of the 25-meter pistol event, which she eventually had to forfeit because her gun would not fire, she qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 10m pistol event in May 2019 by finishing fourth at the Munich ISSF World Cup. In February of the same year, she won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the 2019 ISSF World Cup in Delhi.
Manu Bhaker won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed event in all four of the Pistol & Rifle ISSF World Cups in 2019, partnering with Saurabh Chaudhry, putting the two of them in the running for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh won the gold for India in the women’s 25m pistol team event at the 2022 Asian Games. She became the first female shooter from India to win an Olympic medal in 2024 when she won the bronze in the Summer Olympics in Paris.
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