Where Indian shooting stands and what to expect as Paris Olympics 2024 begin: In conversation with Olympian Rahi Sarnobat
“We have seen with Neeraj Chopra’s example that one medal can change the face of a sport in the country. Shooting needs that medal this time.”
Rahi Sarnobat, a two-time Indian Olympian and the first-ever Indian woman shooter to win gold at the Asian Games (2018 Jakarta) tells me during our Zoom chat as we discuss the chances of the Indian shooting contingent at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Without enough context, the emphasis on India ‘needing’ a shooting medal, ideally gold, in Paris, might seem exaggerated. After all, India is among the world’s best sides in shooting, particularly the rifle and pistol categories, with regular successes at international events, including the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cups. Many of their big rivals, including the USA, are wary of the threat India can pose at the Olympics. In terms of India’s all-time medal tally at the Olympics, shooting is the third most successful sport.
However, the Indian shooting contingent enters the Paris Games on the back of two consecutive Olympics without a single medal. Back home, expectations are rife from shooting, as they were in the last two editions. Sarnobat, who could not make the squad for Paris, herself was among the top medal hopes at the 2020 Tokyo Games, entering the mega event arguably in the form of her life and was a strong contender to become India’s first-ever female shooter to win an Olympic medal. Although, for the second Olympics in a row, nothing clicked for India.
“It is inexplicable to me how we didn’t medal in Tokyo,” says Somit Biswas, a partner at SPORTSCOMM, the agency on record for the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), and someone who has been involved in Indian shooting from close quarters for a long time.
But should India be optimistic about turning the tide this time around? The coronavirus pandemic was a major factor at the Tokyo Games, but it still did not help that the shooters were practically forced into a training/pre-event camp far from home in Croatia for months leading up to the Olympics, not having the freedom to prepare the way each shooter would have wanted. That, for one, has already changed this time.
“This last preparation period, I’ve already seen a big change in the way my teammates and colleagues have been preparing,” says Sarnobat. “They were taking breaks, going home and visiting family. Before Tokyo, I still remember that I met my family five months before the Olympics and then directly after Tokyo. Of course, COVID was a factor too that year. But still, it was a long time away from home. These things matter.”
Biswas expressed a similar sentiment.
“The big difference this time is that the shooters have been able to do what they wanted in the build-up to the Olympics. Everyone was away doing their own thing and met only a few days before they were scheduled to depart together to Chateauroux (Olympic shooting venue in Paris).”
India’s Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (R) in action.
Sarnobat also highlighted other developments outside the shooting ranges, applauding the sports governing bodies in India for providing athletes with more resources to thrive under such immense pressure. The 2012 London and 2020 Tokyo Olympian explained how Indian athletes in general historically went into an Olympics edition ‘mentally exhausted’, without much assistance to help them be mentally and physically at their freshest leading up to the event of their lives. But she is happy to see that changing.
“Just getting to those tournaments used to feel such a major achievement because of the intensity of the national competitions in the build-up,” Sarnobat highlights. “But of late, I think the associations and federations have also understood that and are now giving athletes more resources off the field to help them be fully ready for tournaments, be it psychologists, strength and conditioning coaches, nutritionists, etc.”
In fact, the Paris Olympics is the first time that Indian athletes are being accompanied by a dedicated chief nutritionist and a sleep consultant/coach. The ratio of athletes to support staff accompanying them in Paris is also more even (1:1 rather than the usual 3:1), supporting Sarnobat’s point.
The medal hopes
Among India’s top medal contenders in shooting is Sift Kaur Samra, who broke the world record in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions category last year and is the reigning Asian Games individual gold medalist. Other names include Anish Bhanwala, Arjun Babuta, Sandeep Singh, and Rhythm Sangwan, all of whom have been in solid form and cannot be ruled out as contenders. But Sarnobat believes the experienced quartet of Manu Bhaker, Anjum Moudgil, Elavenil Valarivan, and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar are in with the strongest chance.
Bhaker is the only one among India’s record 21-strong shooting contingent (across rifle, pistol, and shotgun events) to have qualified for multiple events – the women’s 10m air pistol, 25m pistol, and 10m air pistol mixed team events. Meanwhile, Valarivan will compete in the women’s 10m air rifle and 10m air rifle mixed team events. Moudgil and Singh will be gunning for glory in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions and the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions events, respectively.
India’s Manu Bhaker prepares for the Paris Olympics.
All four shooters have something in common. They are the only ones with previous experience of the Olympics, which Sarnobat believes will help them a great deal. More importantly, having experienced the lows of Tokyo with the quartet, Sarnobat feels they are now mentally stronger and better equipped to deal with the occasion.
“We were all together when we lost in Tokyo and the bond we developed after Tokyo was very different,” reveals Sarnobat. “We saw each other breaking down, being depressed after losing, and picking each other up to prepare for the road ahead. That experience of being at a very low point and rising again to prepare for the next Olympics will give them a lot of strength.”
Biswas holds a similar opinion, stressing the importance of experience and maturity.
“I feel a bit of experience and maturity are always important for Indian athletes…We generally don’t have shooters who not many people know about, come and win gold one day, then just go away. Indians are generally better with more experience. So I would pick the four Olympians who are in the squad. Of those four, a medal should come from atleast one of them.”
Time for the tide to turn?
The ghosts of Rio and Tokyo will linger no doubt, but now is the time to focus solely on Paris. Live in the moment, as the cliche goes. The popularity of shooting is already on the rise, but an Olympic medal after a 12-year drought will still be a game-changer.
As for the colour of the medal? As former shooter Gagan Narang, India’s Chef de Mission in Paris and a bronze medalist in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the 2012 London Olympics, said to RevSportz earlier this week – “Nobody is talking of winning a medal, they are talking of gold medals.”
https://twitter.com/issf_official/status/1816737719344857396
Shooting is a sport where the barest of margins can make all the difference. We already saw an example of that on the opening morning of the Paris Games itself, as Sarabjot Singh missed out on qualification for the men’s 10m air pistol final despite being placed in the Top-8 in the qualification round, by virtue of hitting only one fewer inner 10 than Germany’s Robin Walter, with whom he was jointly-placed on the 8th and final qualifying spot. But there is still a long way to go, and no stone has been left unturned in terms of preparation, both mentally and physically. Going forward, maybe it is finally time for those margins to fall in India’s favour.
