Indian shooter Swapnil Kusale added a medal to the country's medal tally as he clinched the historic bronze medal in men's 50m air rifle 3 positions at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday, August 31.
Swapnil Kusale qualified for the final after finishing seventh with 590 points in the qualification round of the event. He put on an impressive performance to be one of the top eight shooters to make it to the final of the men's 50m air rifle 3 positions.
In the final, Kusale continued with his impressive performance as he was consistently accurate and focused in high pressure situations. After kneeling and prone positions, the Pune-born shooter was in the top five. But, in the standing position, Swapnil Kusale moved to the fifth spot and was 0.4 points away from earning the third position.
Swapnil Kusale became the third Indian shooter after Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh to win a medal at the ongoing edition of the Summer Games. All three shooters have won their maiden Olympic medals at the Paris Olympics 2024.
With this maiden Olympic medal, Swapnil Kusale became the seventh Indian shooter after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh to make it to the podiums at the Summer Games.
Who is Swapnil Kusale?
Swapnil Kusale comes from an agricultural background in Pune. In 2009, Kusale's father took him to Maharashtra's Krida Prabhodini, a dedicated sports programme, where he began receiving his shooting lessons.
After a year of Intense training and trying hands at various sports, Swapnil Kusale became with shooting and decided to pursue to it as a career. Pune-born shooter's dedication and passion for shooting became recognized and Lakshya Sports has been sponsoring him since 2013.
Swapnil Kusale was initially coached by Deepali Deshpande and now trains under the tutelage of Tejaswini Sawant in Kolhapur. Apart from being shooter, Swapnil has been working as a ticket collector at Central Railway since 2015.
Major achievements by Swapnil Kusale
Swapnil Kusale's first international breakthrough came when he clinched the gold medal in the junior category of 50m rifle prone 3 at the Asian Shooting Championship in 2015.
Swapnil became known in the Indian shooting circuit when he defeated 2012 London Olympics bronze medalist Gagan Narang and Chain Singh to win the gold medal in 50m rifle prone 3 event at the 59th National Shooting Championship in 2015.
In 2017, Swapnil Singh regained his gold medal at the 60th National Shooting Championship, which was held in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram.
In 2021, the Pune shooter won the gold medal in 50m rifle 3 positions team event at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi. In the following year, Swapnil won another gold medal in team event at the World Cup in Baku.
In 2022, the 28-year-old missed out the chance of winning his first individual World Championship medal as he finished fourth in the final of the men's 50m air rifle 3 positions
In 2024, Swapnil Kusale realised his Olympic dream after he made it to 21-member Indian shooting contingent following the trails held in Bhopal. He finished fifth in the trials, but selected as a second shooter based on his high scores in the first three Olympic shooting trials.
