Manu Bhaker is only Indian to win two medals in a single Games Image: Alain Jocard / AFP; Imaging: Kapil Kashyap
There’s one thing that Manu Bhaker dislikes more than losing: Regret. So much so, that when her motivation was in a freefall—with the colossal disappointment of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, a very public fallout with coach Jaspal Rana, and a series of middling performances through 2022 and 2023—it was the fear of regret that kept her going.
“The only thought that kept pushing me during this phase was that I didn’t want to regret not doing my best when quotas for the Paris Olympics in 2024 were up for grabs,” Bhaker tells Forbes India. Her conviction stood vindicated 365 days on, when the 23-year-old went from the cusp of quitting to making history—of being the only Indian to have won multiple medals in a single edition of the Olympics. Bhaker was the standout performer in India’s somewhat-disappointing medals tally in the 2024 Games, winning two bronze medals in shooting, and coming agonisingly close to another (finishing fourth in her third event).
“Now, it’s become a habit with me,” adds Bhaker, “I always give my best in whatever I do, so that I don’t stand to regret it later.”
But it’s often easier said than done. Signing up for three events at the high-octane Paris Olympics, Bhaker had to play a match every alternate day. And with her first medal coming on the second day of the Games, the pressure of expectations to repeat the feat would have piled up on her. This is where Rana, her coach with whom she had reunited in 2023, stepped in. “He cut me off from everything,” says Bhaker. “I wasn’t watching TV or checking my phone. So, the only pressure I took was about the match at hand—there was no scope for overthinking or even thinking about previous wins.”
Such was her laser-sharp focus that Bhaker wasn’t even aware she was on the threshold of winning her first medal during the finals of the 10 m air pistol event. “I didn’t know which place I was in or if I had reached a medal position. I was focussed on every single shot I had to fire,” she says. Her last shot was a 10.3, against a 10.5 shot by her South Korean compatriot YJ Kim—it eliminated her by a margin of 0.1, but, by then, she had done enough to secure a bronze medal.
Yet, Bhaker wasn’t swept by euphoria but remembers going through a bittersweet feeling. “On one hand, I was happy that I had a medal and India had opened its tally, but, on the other, I was wondering if it was a little sad that I hadn’t qualified for the duel between the top two,” she says.
At 23, and with multiple Olympic Games in her sights, Bhaker is primed for redemption. Not just for the two bronze medals, but also the fourth place finish in the 25 m air pistol. “No athlete is ever happy with a fourth place. Even now when I look back [at that performance], I know there’s scope for improvement, and I will try that going ahead.”
“Manu has always been very confident at the shooting range. Her belief in herself helped her bounce back and start from zero after the Tokyo Olympics,” says father Ram Kishan Bhaker. “She was also inspired by I am Bolt [the 2016 biopic on Jamaican runner Usain Bolt].”
Like the sprint legend, who won eight gold medals across three Olympics, Bhaker, too, would look to extend her domination across multiple Games.
And for that, she believes, she just needs to do more of the same. “I didn’t change my lifestyle to prepare for the Games, and I didn’t need to switch back after,” she says. “For the last eight-and-a-half to nine years, ever since I have been shooting, I enjoy keeping myself fit, I enjoy healthy food—other than aloo paratha of course. I really love my sport, so I really like to train. I have never kept anything on hold for the Games.”
There’s something else that’s also remained constant with Bhaker: Her belief in the adage that nothing is permanent. “My seniors used to say it and now I keep reminding myself,” she says. “No matter how high you fly, you will fall one day. And then again, some day, you will rise. It’s a cycle.”