Olympian Swapnil Kusale gets hero’s welcome in Pune; bows at Dagdusheth Ganpati

Pune (Maharashtra): The Olympic shooter, Swapnil S. Kusale, who made India and Maharashtra proud with a Bronze Medal in Shooting at the Paris Olympics, arrived from Delhi to a hero’s welcome at the Pune International Airport, here on Thursday.

A huge crowd of admirers and commoners were present to meet, greet and lustily cheer him, and scores of excited airport and airline staffers, and passengers craned their necks and kept their mobiles ready to ‘shoot’ the big shooter.

As he casually walked out of the arrival lounge through the terminal building, many gave him a thunderous round of applause and others furiously clicked the rare and glorious moment on their mobiles, giving a tough time to the security personnel.

Acknowledging the warm and spontaneous reception, Swapnil, seeming a tad weary, managed to smile, wave his hands, fold his hands in gratification for the love and affection showered on him and then was escorted to a waiting vehicle for his other engagements.

His equally excited family members were rushing en route from Kolhapur to Pune, but apparently missed his arrival at the airport by a few minutes owing to the traffic, said dad and schoolteacher father Suresh Kusale.

Soon after setting foot in his home state Maharashtra, Swapnil, 28, did what was quite natural and expected -- a ‘darshan’ of the famed Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati.

There, with folded hands, he reverently bowed before the benign idol of the elephant-headed god and offered a silent prayer for his historic victory -- bringing a second Olympic Bronze Medal to Maharashtra after a gap of 72 years.

“From there, he will go to garland the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and then join a victory procession in his honour, visit the Balewadi Stadium for a grand felicitation programme and attend other engagements in the city,” a delighted Suresh Kusale told IANS.

He said that the “entire clan” plus extended relatives, neighbours and friends from their small Kambalwadi village in Kolhapur, will be at the forefront of the celebrations for the new celebrity Marathi Mulga making his ‘ghar wapasi’ after the Olympic conquest.

Besides Suresh Kusale, his wife and village Sarpanch (Headwoman) Anita, their other son Suraj, plus maternal-paternal uncles-aunts and hordes of cousins and childhood friends have planned their own big and small events in Swapnil’s honour, plus a belated birthday (August 6) bash.

In Pune, they have planned a traditional Marathi-style welcome to Swapnil with a garland, coconut, shawl and tons of blessings, plus the same for his Coach, Deepali Deshpande (54) and his close friend-cum-mentor Akshay Ashtaputre, “who helped my son a lot and contributed to his Olympic achievement”, said Kusale.

“He had joined the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here. For Swapnil, the shooting range near Balewadi holds special significance as he practised his sport, sharpened his skills and learnt everything there to bring honour to India…” Kusale added proudly.

Later in the afternoon, Swapnil is likely to visit the Central Railway Pune Division offices where he was earlier attached as a Junior Traveling Ticket Examiner, and attend a small function arranged by the staffers there.

On August 1 - hours after his spectacular shot at the Olympic Bronze, the CR gave him an out-of-turn promotion as OSD and transferred him to the headquarters Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Mumbai.

Kusale said that it is not yet clear when Swapnil will travel to Kolhapur to savour his favourite home food prepared by his mother which he relishes.

“We shall discuss with his team and other officials… We have learnt he has to go back to New Delhi on August 15 (for Independence Day). We are also very eager to receive him… Maybe he will come home to Kambalwadi by August 20,” he said.

Swapnil bagged the Paris Olympics Bronze Medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event on August 1, making it his first Olympic medal; a second for Maharashtra (after the legendary freestyle wrestler Khasjhaba Dadasaheb Jadhav of Satara at the Helsinki Olympics 1952); and the third (so far in 2024) for India.