The Indian shooting contingent for the Paris Olympics 2024 will comprise 21 shooters, which will be the country’s highest-ever in any Olympics, surpassing 15 at the Tokyo 2020. The 21 shooters are divided across the three Olympic shooting disciplines: Rifle, Pistol, and Shotgun.
The shooting events at the Paris Olympics 2024 will start on July 27 and will run until August 5 at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre. India managed to secure 16 quotas in rifle and pistol events from the shooting qualifying events at the Games, which was the maximum possible quotas. Meanwhile, they also obtained five quotas in shotgun events, making it to a total of 21.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manu Bhaker secured two quotas in women’s 10m air pistol and women’s 25m pistol and she’ll be the only Indian to feature in two individual events. National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) swapped one of Bhaker’s quotas and included women’s trap shooter Shreyasi Singh in the shotgun squad.
The 21-member Indian shooting contingent will be competing for 27 medals, including five mixed teams with one in shotgun and two each in rifle and pistol.
This is the best chance for India to break their 12-year drought of a medal at the Olympics. Indian shooting has just four medals to their name at the Summer Games with the first one coming at Athens 2004 by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in the form of a bronze in men’s double trap event.
Abhinav Bindra then made history at the Beijing 2008 Olympics by securing a gold in men’s 10m rifle to become India’s first ever individual gold medallist. In the London 2012 Olympics, Vijay Kumar won silver in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol, and Gagan Narang won bronze in the 10m air rifle event.
Now, let’s take a look at the Indian shooting squad that is all set to rewrite history at the Paris Olympics 2024.
Indian Shooting Contingent for the Paris Olympics 2024
Rifle
Men’s 10m air rifle: Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta
Women’s 10m air rifle: Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita Jindal
Women’s 50m rifle 3 positions: Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil
Men’s 50m rifle 3 positions: Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Swapnil Kusale
10m air rifle mixed team: Sandeep Singh/Elavenil Valarivan, Arjun Babuta/Ramita Jindal
Pistol
Men’s 10m air pistol: Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema
Women’s 10m air pistol: Manu Bhaker, Rhythm Sangwan
Men’s 25m rapid fire pistol: Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu
Women’s 25m pistol: Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh
10m air pistol mixed team: Sarabjot Singh/Manu Bhaker, Arjun Singh Cheema/Rhythm Sangwan
Shotgun
Men’s trap: Prithviraj Tondaiman
Women’s trap: Rajeshwari Kumari, Shreyasi Singh
Men’s skeet: Anantjeet Singh Naruka
Women’s skeet: Maheshwari Chauhan, Raiza Dhillon
Skeet mixed team: Anantjeet Singh Naruka/Maheshwari Chauhan