'I made a fake profile to defend PV Sindhu once': Shooter Manu Bhaker

Social Media has been a mixed bag over the years with the fans either being extremely harsh to the athletes who fail or extremely supportive when needed.

Nevertheless, the trolling and scrutiny that comes with the presence of social media can take a toll on elite athletes affecting them mentally. A lot of prominent Indian athletes have spoken about the same in the past couple of years.

Indian shooter Manu Bhaker has been an extremely popular figure on social media.

Once trolled and criticized for her poor performance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 22-year-old turned the tide in her favour by winning bronze medals at the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics in the women's 10m air pistol event and 10m air pistol mixed team event.

After her medal win, she opened up about social media and the impact of trolling it has on the mindset of the athletes.

Talking about the trigger that social media brings, Manu told The Sportstar," I have always appreciated Neeraj and Sindhu for their hard work. There was this one time when I made a fake profile to defend Sindhu. Some haters commented, and I got so triggered that I made a fake account to defend her."

"I will tell the next generation of athletes to be confident and keep working hard. If one Olympics doesn't come their way, the second one will come their way. Like it happened with me," she concluded.

Reacting to Manu's statement, double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu said on X(formerly Twitter)," What a sweetheart! Welcome to the two-medal club."

Both PV Sindhu and Manu Bhaker will be targeting a historic third medal in their respective sports.