'Manu will have a three-mo­nth break,': Jaspal Rana after her Paris feat

Shooter Manu Bhaker shot to unprecedented fame at the Paris Olympics 2024 after winning two bronze medals in the 10m air pistol women's and mixed team events.

The 22-year-old also came agonizingly close to achieving a hat-trick of medals in Paris. She finished fourth in the 25m air pistol final.

Following her mind-boggling success in Paris after the debacle of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Manu's brand value increased manifold with Indian companies reaching out to her management companies with deals.

As her popularity rises, there are obvious questions of how she should handle it.

Her coach Jaspal Rana, the man behind Manu's steady rise in Paris, said, "She will have to face it and learn how to live with it."

"She has faced problems, and now she will deal with these things too. Solving a problem is more difficult than distractions,” Rana was quoted as saying.

As Manu's Paris 2024 campaign came to an end, she will take a break from the sport and bask in the adulation back home.

“She will have a three-mo­nth break. And I want her to enjoy it to the fullest. And what’s wrong if she does that? If so­meone gets 99.9 percent in the exams, will she not have a blast? She is a smart kid and knows how to handle everything.”

Manu, meanwhile, is determined to better the colour of her medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

But her coach Rana said that is too far.

“Four years? It’s a long time. What’s the point of thinking about LA from now on... I have not set any target for her now.”