Olympic shooter Swapnil Kusale made history at the 2024 Paris Olympics by becoming the first shooter from India to win a medal in the 50m Rifle 3P event. Kusale finished behind China’s Yukun Liu (gold) and Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish with a score of 451.4.
Shooter Swapnil Kusale, who placed third in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions final at the National Shooting Center in Châteauroux on Thursday, earned India’s third medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. In the face of stiff competition, Kusale gave an outstanding performance, placing third in the final with a score of 451.4 points. In the men’s 50-meter rifle three-positions competition, Swapnil has now made Olympic history as the first Indian shooter to earn a medal. Additionally, this is the first Olympics edition in which an Indian shooting squad has won three medals.
After the kneeling phase of the 50-meter rifle 3-position final, Swapnil’s score of 153.3 initially put him sixth. He moved up to fifth place with a total score of 310.1 at the completion of the prone stage, trailing only third-place Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine by 0.6 points. Kusale scored 51.1 in the first five standing shots, climbing to fourth place and only 0.4 points out of third. Three rounds of fifteen shots apiece comprise the 50-meter rifle 3-position final. The elimination round begins after 15 shots in the standing, prone, and kneeling positions, respectively.
With a total score of 590, comprising 38 inner 10s (Xs) from three spots, Swapnil had placed seventh in the qualifying round. Manu Bhaker became the first Indian shooter to earn an Olympic medal on Monday when she won bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol competition. On Tuesday, Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh created history once more when they won bronze in the mixed team 10m pistol competition. She made history as the first Indian athlete to win two medals at the same Olympics after independence.
WHO IS SWAPNIL?
Swapnil Kusale, born in 1995 into an agricultural family, works as a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) for the Pune Railway Division. His father enrolled him in Maharashtra’s Krida Prabhodini, a primary sports program, and after a year of rigorous physical training, Kusale selected shooting as his sport. He took home a gold medal in the junior division of the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait in 2015, where he competed in the 50m rifle prone 3. He also won the 50m rifle prone event in the 59th National Shooting Championship in Tughlakabad, defeating Chain Singh and Gagan Narang. At the 61st National Championship in Thiruvananthapuram, Kusale repeated this triumph by taking home the gold medal in the 50-meter rifle three-position competition.