Third Olympic medal for India
Bronze medallist India's Swapnil Kusale poses during the presentation ceremony of the men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions shooting event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Chateauroux, France on Thursday
Chateauroux (France) : Swapnil Kusale doesn't quite know just why it has taken so long for him to be at the Olympics, where he landed a medal on debut on Thursday. A medal that is definitely life-changing for him personally but also historic in significance for Indian shooting given that it's the first time that a rifle shooter has managed to do it in the physically draining 50m 3 positions event.
Ask him why it took him so long to arrive, he was as candid as one can be. "May be I was not as strong mentally," says the 28-year-old son of a teacher father and sarpanch mother from Kambalwadi village near Maharashtra's Kolhapur. Kusale began shooting in 2009, made his international debut in 2012 but it took him another 12 years to make his Olympic debut.
The 50m rifle shooter was not in the scheme of things in Rio 2016 and missed out on a Tokyo 2020 berth narrowly as per the then selection criteria which gave more importance to performance in international events.