Indian shooters at the Paris Olympics 2024: Squad, Schedule, Medal chances

Shooting is one of the oldest sports which is a part of the Olympics Program. This was first included at the very first edition of the Olympics in 1896 and became an essential part of this biggest multi-sport event.

Paris Olympics will be the 28th edition of the Olympic Games which have shooting sport as their core sport. There will be a total of 15 medal events in this edition of the shooting roster, starting from 27th July to August 5.

The USA is the most successful country in this sport, winning the most number of medals (116) at the Olympics. However, China has shown its dominance in this sport in recent times, topping four of the last six editions of the Olympics in shooting.

This year, India is sending their biggest-ever shooting contingent to Paris, which includes 21 shooters. This is the second most number of quotas by a single nation at the Paris Olympics after China (22).

The focus is now on those selected shooters to prove their mettle and end the 12-year-long drought of a shooting medal in India at the Olympic Games.

Medal Chances

India lies among one of the top countries in this sport, especially at the rifle and pistol events as they have won a good number of medals throughout the circuit in the last decade.

However, they haven't replicated that performance at the Olympic Games as the last time an Indian shooter won an Olympic medal was in the 2012 London Games, where they bagged two medals.

Indian shooters now heading toward the Paris Olympics and again they will be the ones to watch out for and might be the most important ones in helping the Indian medal tally rise.

Here, The Bridge looking at some of those shooters who can bring back the glory to India:

Possible Medalists

10m air pistol mixed team:- India's best chance of winning a medal is in the 10m air pistol mixed event. They have won medals in this event at both of the previous major events, gold at the World Championships 2023 and a silver at the Asian Games 2023.

The pairing of Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh will be one of the favorites to medal at this event. However, they will face strong competition from the Chinese and Korean pairs in the qualification round.

Sarabjot Singh: He will be one of the favorites to win an individual medal for India at his event, men's 10m air pistol individual. Sarabjot is also coming into the tournament in good form.

He was the only gold medalist for India at the last World Cup before the Paris Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Sift Kaur Samra: The world record holder and the Asian Games Champion, Sift, is among the favorites to grab an individual female medal at her event, the 50m rifle 3 positions.

However, the 50m has good competition from the Chinese shooters and also the British shooter, Seonaid McIntosh, who has a good form this season.

Other possibilities

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar: Aishwary heading to his second Olympics will want to add a prestigious medal to his kitty. He will be taking part in the men's 50m 3P event, which has a very tight competition with top European and Asian Countries.

Czech Republic, Norway, Ukraine, and the Chinese shooters will pose a big threat in the way of this young Indian shooter.

10m mixed rifle team: Indian rifle shooters have failed to perform consistently over the last two years, resulting in a lot of changes within teams across tournaments. This time also India has a mix of both experienced and youth in the team.

However, they will be aiming to keep on the rich history of the Indian rifle by winning another major medal. Although, they have to be accurate if want to make it to the top 4 in the qualification round.

Rifle and Pistol Squad

10m Air Rifle Men - Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta

10m Air Rifle Women - Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita

50m Rifle 3 Positions Women - Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil

50m Rifle 3 Positions Men - Aishwary Tomar, Swapnil Kusale

10m Air Pistol Men - Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Cheema

10m Air Pistol Women - Manu Bhaker, Rhythm Sangwan

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men - Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu

25m Pistol Women - Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh

Schedule

27 July

10m Air Rifle Mixed Team qualification - 12:30 PM IST

10m Air Rifle Medal matches - 2:00 PM IST

10m Air Pistol qualification Men - 2:00 PM IST

10m Air Pistol qualification Women - 4:00 PM IST

28 July

10m Air Rifle Women’s Qualification - 12:45 PM IST

10m Air Pistol Men’s Final - 1:00 PM IST

10m Air Rifle Men’s Qualification - 2:45 PM IST

10m Air Pistol Women’s Final - 3:30 PM IST

29 July

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Qualification - 12:45 PM IST

10m Air Rifle Women’s Final - 1:00 PM IST

10m Air Rifle Men’s Final - 3:30 PM IST

30 July

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team medal matches - 1:00 PM IST

31 July

50m Rifle 3 Pos. Men’s Qualification - 12:30 PM IST

1 August

50m Rifle 3 Positions Men’s Final - 1:00 PM IST

50m Rifle 3 Pos. Women’s Qualification - 3:30 PM IST

2 August

25m Pistol Women’s Qual. Precision - 12:30 PM IST

50m Rifle 3 Positions Women's Final - 1:00 PM IST

25m Pistol Women’s Qual. Rapid - 3:30 PM IST

3 August

25m Pistol Women's Final - 1:00 PM IST

4 August

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qual-Stage 1 - 12:30 PM IST

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qual-Stage 2 - 4:30 PM IST

5 August

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Final - 1:00 PM IST

History of Indian shooting at Olympics:

Shooting is the third most successful sport for India at the Olympics in terms of number of medals, having won four medals in this sport. Three of those four medals have come out in rifle or pistol events.

The first Indian rifle shooter to win a medal for India was the legendary Abhinav Bindra, who clinched the iconic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in 10m air rifle individual event.

Indian shooters took this ahead and doubled the number of medals in this sport at the very next edition, winning two medals at the 2012 London Olympics. Vijay Kumar won the first and the only medal for India in pistol shooting.

He clinched the silver medal in the men's 25 m rapid-fire pistol event in London whereas Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the men's 10m air rifle category at the same Olympics.

However, Indian shooters are having a lean phase after that and went empty-handed in the next two editions.

The current crop of Indian shooters will now be aiming to end this run and add a few more medals to the Indian medal tally.