Indian shooters have indeed arrived in Paris with a bang as Swapnil Kushale on Thursday secured India's third medal at the Paris Olympics 2024. Swapnil Kushale, 29, won a bronze medal in Chateauroux at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event with a score of 451.4. Swapnil Kushale shot an aggregate of 451.4 in the eight-shooter final to finish third after being placed sixth at one stage. This is the third Olympic medal in shooting after Manu Bhaker won the first bronze in 10 m Air Rifle Shooting and Bhaker and Sarobjit Singh won another bronze on July 30. Now, the question arises who is Swapnil Kushale, India's third Paris Olympics medalist? Below is all about Swapnil Kushale-
Who is Swapnil Kushale?
Hailing from Kambalwadi village in Kolhapur district (Maharashtra), Swapnil Kusale worked as a Ticket Collector in Indian Railways. At the age of 14, Swanil was selected to be part of a Maharashtra government sports scheme. After his selection, Swapnil chose shooting as his preferred sport.
Swapnil's 57-year-old father Suresh while talking to a news portal revealed that his son now rarely gets time to visit back his village in Kolhapur. At the age of 10, Swapnil lived in government residential schools and later, he received training in Pune while working as a TTE with the Indian Railways in Pune.
As per reports, it was by his earnings as TTE that Swapnil managed to buy his first rifle. Coming back to Swapil's sports career & his journey to the Paris Olympics, in October 2022, he earned an Olympic quota berth for India in the men's 50-meter rifle 3 position event with a fourth-place finish at the 2022 ISSF World Shooting Championships in Cairo.
Coming back to India's performance at the Olympics 2024, all three medals so far for India have come in shooting events – which is the best performance for the sport in the Olympics for India. The last time a 50m rifle shooter made it to the Olympic finals was in 2012 London when Joydeep Karmakar finished fourth in a 50m rifle-prone event.