Manu Bhaker, born on February 18, 2002, is an accomplished Indian Olympian in the sport of shooting. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she secured a bronze medal in the women’s 10-meter air pistol event. This achievement marked India’s first medal of the Games and made her the first Indian woman shooter to earn an Olympic medal. Her early success includes a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where she was just 16, and she also became the youngest Indian to win a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup.
Early Life
Manu Bhaker hails from Goria village in the Jhajjar district of Haryana. Her father, Ram Kishan Bhaker, is a chief engineer in the Merchant Navy. Until the age of 14, Manu was a multi-sport athlete, excelling in disciplines such as Huyen Langlon, boxing, tennis, and skating, and earned medals in national competitions in these sports.
Career
With an investment of ₹1,50,000 from her father, Bhaker transitioned to competitive shooting. Her breakthrough came at the 2017 Asian Junior Championships, where she won a silver medal. At the 2017 National Games in Kerala, she achieved a remarkable performance by clinching nine gold medals and surpassing the record of 240.8 points held by World Cup medalist Heena Sidhu with a score of 242.3 points in the final.
In 2018, Bhaker won gold at the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the Women’s 10-meter air pistol event. She defeated Mexico’s Alejandra Zavala with a score of 237.5, compared to Zavala’s 237.1. At just 16, she became the youngest Indian to win a World Cup gold medal. She also earned her second World Cup gold in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event alongside Om Prakash Mitharval, with their combined score of 476.1 edging out the German pair Sandra and Christian Reitz.
During the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Bhaker scored 388/400 points in the 10m air pistol qualifying round and went on to win gold in the finals with a new Commonwealth Games record of 240.9 points. At the 2018 Asian Games, she set a games record with a score of 593 in the 25m Air Pistol qualification but finished sixth in the final, while her compatriot Rahi Sarnobat won gold in that event.
At the 2018 Youth Olympics, Manu Bhaker shot 236.5 to top the women’s 10m air pistol standings, becoming the first Indian shooter and the first female athlete from India to win a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games. In February 2019, she clinched gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the ISSF World Cup in Delhi.
She qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 10m pistol event after a fourth-place finish at the Munich ISSF World Cup, despite a setback when her pistol malfunctioned in the finals of the 25m pistol event. Throughout 2019, Bhaker consistently won gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event at all four ISSF World Cups, establishing her as a strong contender for the Tokyo Olympics.
In 2022, she contributed to India’s victory in the women’s 25m pistol team event at the Asian Games, alongside Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan. Her career reached another milestone at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where she won a bronze medal in the 10-meter air pistol event, becoming the first Indian woman shooter to achieve this Olympic feat.
