An elite athlete manages to win an Olympic medal after years of blood and sweat and it was no different for 22-year-old Manu Bhaker, who trusted the teachings of the Bhagwat Gita to fulfill a long-cherished dream. The first Indian woman to win a shooting medal at the Summer Games, the Jhajjar-born has been highly regarded since bursting onto the scene with gold in the 10m air pistol at the 2018 Youth Olympics. Numerous medals on the international stage followed. , but the final prize eluded him. After the heartbreak of her first Olympics in Tokyo, where she ended up crying, Bhaker finally realized her dream with a bronze in the 10m air pistol event here on Sunday.
In a country where Olympic medals are extremely difficult to come by, bronze is as good as gold and Bhaker had to follow a relentless routine prepared by his tough coach, Jaspal Rana, in preparation for his second Olympics.
Reading the Gita was the guiding force for Bhaker
The hard lessons from her first Olympics, along with intense training methods around the world, have proven invaluable. For mental preparation, she started reading the Bhagwat Gita after the Tokyo setback and is now a firm believer in karma.
“I became religious after Tokyo, but not in an extreme way (laughs). I believe that there is an energy that guides and protects us. faith in God who created us.” Bhaker recalled lines from Gita in a high-pressure final that saw athletes eliminated from 12 to 22 throws, with the last two throws deciding the silver and gold medalists.
“The most famous quote from the Gita is don’t worry about the results, just keep working diligently. So the same was happening in my mind (in the final),” she said.
Coach Rana’s presence in the stands was also reassuring. Communication through the eyes is a constant during the competition, giving Bhaker the strength to deal with the pressure.
Bhaker explained how reuniting with Rana last year made her a better athlete.
“I had discovered where Jaspal sir was sitting in the crowd and was making sure I was just looking at him and no one else.
“Looking at him gives me courage and I’m grateful that you know that all those years of hard work we did together were worth it and probably even more so.
“So we’re not going to let this get the better of us and we’re going to keep pushing ourselves in the future. I owe a lot to him. He made training so difficult for me that it wasn’t too difficult for me as far as performance was concerned,” she said. referring to the two remaining events at the Paris Games.
To her credit, she looked supremely confident both during qualifying on Saturday and in the finals 24 hours later. This positive body language was also observed by former shooter Abhinav Bindra, one of only two individual gold medalists from India in Olympic history.
“For me, the best moment was when I saw a photo of her yesterday, after qualifying. She did not show any emotion, which meant she was in the market today,” Bindra told PTI.
“Her journey has been wonderful. She is showing what an athlete’s life is like (ups and downs),” she added.
Lessons from Tokyo
A pistol malfunction during qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics left her discouraged, but three years later, Bhaker said she wouldn’t be on the podium if it weren’t for that painful experience.
“In Tokyo, things definitely didn’t go as planned. But somewhere, I would be careless. I fell short for whatever reason.
“I think if you can’t win something, you can learn a lot from it. If I hadn’t had these lessons in my life in Tokyo, I wouldn’t be here today.
“We have a lot of talent here, but we have no confidence in whether or not we can do it at this stage or let the pressure get to us.
“I’m very grateful that I was able to break that chain and take home the medal.” Intense training, daily fines of 400 euros and community service. Whether he was training in Luxembourg or Dehradun, Rana kept clear goals for Bhaker, even for a regular session. If he failed to match the score decided by Rana, Bhaker would pay fines that would be used to help those in need around the world.
“His working method is very different from other people. Usually he sets a goal and if you score that much, everything is fine.
“And if you don’t score that much, then the points that were lower in that score, let’s say we decided to score 582 and I scored 578. So those four points will equate to 40 euros and sometimes 400 euros depending on the situation and country. You have to give a lot,” Bhaker said.
More details about the mutual agreement were revealed by Rana, who was naturally emotional given the enormity of the occasion.
“I remember once in Dehradun, she bought jaggery worth thousands of rupees to feed the cows. The money would also be used to feed beggars around the world.
“More recently we were in Luxembourg and she ended up giving 40 euros to artists in a restaurant. They were also surprised by that gesture,” Rana recalled.
Having finally broken the barrier, Bhaker is in no mood to relax. She feels a medal in the mixed team events of 25m pistol and women’s 10m air pistol.
“She went beyond her limits to prepare for this Olympics. There is more to come from her,” concluded Rana.
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