The Paris 2024 Olympics is getting better with the passing of each day for India. In the beginning, while it looked like it would be a tough tournament for India, things are improving now. On July 29 (Day 3), Manu Bhaker won India's first medal, a bronze medal in the Women's 10m air pistol event with a score of 221.7. On July 30 (Day 4), Sarabjot Singh and Manu Bhaker clinched India's second medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team shooting event, which was once again a bronze medal.
On August 1 (Day 6), Swapnil Kusale engraved his name into the history books after he won a bronze medal in the Men's 50m rifle 3P event. Swapnil hit a score of 451.4 to grab India's third medal at the 2024 Olympics. For the uninitiated, this is the first time in India's Olympic history that their shooting contingent has managed to win three medals in a single edition of the Olympic Games.
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Indian shooter, Swapnil Kusale is leading all the headlines right now, as he became the third player after Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh to win a medal for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Another interesting fact is that Swapnil has also registered his name in history as the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in the Men's 50m rifle 3 positions event. After Abhinav Bindra's gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Gagan Narang's bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics, Swapnil won India's third medal in rifle shooting, making an entire nation proud.
After winning a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Swapnil Kusale is trending all over the internet, and almost everyone wants to know everything about the shooting star. Talking about the Indian shooter's background, Swapnil was born on August 6, 1995, in Kambalwadi village in Kolhapur district. Talking about his parents, Swapnil's father is a school teacher, while not much is known about his mother. Right from an early age, Swapnil was into sports. As a result, his father enrolled him in the Maharashtra government's primary sporting programme, Krida Prabhodini.
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Swapnil Kusale trained for one year at Krida Prabhodini, which was solely focused on physical training. However, there came a point when he had to choose a sport, and Swapnil picked rifle shooting. After the end of Krida Prabhodini, Swapnil's father, who wasn't financially sound, took a bank loan in order to send his son to a shooting training camp. Due to financial constraints, Swapnil used to train in a restrictive setup as one bullet was worth Rs. 120.
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Swapnil repaid his father's faith in him by winning the Asian Junior Championship in the 50m rifle prone position in 2012. Soon, his talent caught the attention of a renowned non-profit organisation, Lakshya Sports, which funded his expenses. In the following years, Swapnil performed incredibly well at the junior level due to which he got the job of a ticket collector at the Indian Railways. Swapnil accepted the offer and started working as a ticket collector and invested his salary in his equipment and gear.
When Swapnil Kusale started working as a ticket collector at the Indian Railways, he drew inspiration from former cricketer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's life, who also did the same job in the initial phase of his career. According to a report in India Today, Swapnil has watched MS Dhoni's biopic, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, multiple times in order to seek inspiration from the cricketer's life. In a conversation with PTI, Swapnil opened up about his connection with MS Dhoni and said:
"I don't follow anyone specific in the shooting world. Outside of that, I admire Dhoni for the person that he is. My sport requires me to be as calm and patient as he is on the field. I also relate to his story as I am a ticket collector like he was."
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Talking about Swapnil Kusale's professional career, he has won a series of titles and awards. He won a gold medal at the 2015 Asian Shooting Championships in 2015. In the same year, Swapnil won the 59th National Shooting Championship held in Tughlakabad ahead of Indian shooting legends, Gagan Narang and Chain Singh. He won a gold medal at the 61st National Championship. Not only this, Swapnil is also a three-time medallist (one gold and two silver medals) at the 2022 World Cup in Baku and Azerbaijan.
We hope Swapnil Kusale continues to be in his red-hot form and wins numerous titles in the future. What are your thoughts on his professional career so far? Let us know.
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