Manu Bhaker is an Indian sport shooter who specialises in pistol events. She rose to international prominence as a teenager and is widely regarded as one of India's leading shooters in the women's 10 metre air pistol and 25 metre pistol disciplines. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in shooting, and the first Indian athlete in the post-Independence era to win two medals at a single edition of the Olympic Games.
| Full name | Manu Bhaker |
|---|---|
| Born | 18 February 2002 |
| Birthplace | Goria village, Jhajjar district, Haryana, India |
| Sport | Sport shooting (pistol) |
| Events | 10 m air pistol, 25 m pistol, 10 m air pistol mixed team |
| Coach | Jaspal Rana (notably during the 2024 Olympic cycle) |
| Education | Universal Senior Secondary School, Goria; Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi |
| Major honours | Two bronze medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics; multiple Commonwealth, Asian, and ISSF World Cup medals |
Bhaker was born in Goria, a village in Jhajjar district of Haryana. Her father, Ram Kishan Bhaker, served in the merchant navy. Before taking up shooting, she trained in a range of sports including tennis, skating, boxing, and the Indian martial art thang-ta, in which she won a medal at the national level. She began competitive shooting at the age of fourteen, when her father bought her a pistol on her request and she started training at the shooting range of Universal Senior Secondary School in Goria.
Within a year of taking up the sport, Bhaker won nine gold medals at the 2017 National Shooting Championships in Thiruvananthapuram, defeating established shooters such as Heena Sidhu in the 10 m air pistol final. In 2018, at the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, she became the youngest Indian shooter to win an ISSF World Cup gold by winning the 10 m air pistol event, and added a second gold in the mixed team event.
At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, she won the gold medal in the women's 10 m air pistol. Later that year, at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, she won gold in the 10 m air pistol, becoming the first Indian shooter to win a Youth Olympic gold in the sport.
Bhaker won a silver medal at the 2018 ISSF World Championships in Changwon, South Korea, in the 25 m pistol junior event, along with team medals. She earned an Olympic quota place for India in the 10 m air pistol at the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships in Doha, where she also won gold. She added several ISSF World Cup medals in the 10 m air pistol, 25 m pistol, and mixed team events between 2019 and 2022.
At the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, Bhaker competed in three events. She did not progress to the medal rounds, with her qualification campaign in the 10 m air pistol affected by a malfunction in her pistol that cost her significant time during the round.
The 25 m pistol event was not part of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games shooting programme, which limited her opportunities at that edition. At the 2022 Asian Games (held in Hangzhou in 2023), she was part of the Indian women's 25 m pistol team that won the gold medal, alongside Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan.
At the Paris Olympics, Bhaker won bronze in the women's 10 m air pistol on 28 July 2024, ending a twelve-year wait for an Indian shooting medal at the Olympics and becoming the first Indian woman to win an Olympic shooting medal. Two days later, she partnered Sarabjot Singh to win bronze in the 10 m air pistol mixed team event, defeating South Korea in the bronze medal match. She narrowly missed a third medal in the 25 m pistol, finishing fourth. She was named one of India's flag bearers at the closing ceremony of the Games, alongside hockey player P. R. Sreejesh.
Bhaker has trained with several coaches over her career, including Anil Jakhar at the school range in Goria. Her partnership with Jaspal Rana, a former pistol shooter and Asian Games champion, was particularly significant; after a period of separation, the pair resumed working together in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, a reunion widely credited with her resurgence in 2024.
Bhaker's achievements have had an outsized impact on Indian shooting, particularly for women athletes from rural Haryana, a state already known for producing wrestlers, boxers, and shooters. Her medals in Paris 2024 ended a long medal drought for Indian shooting at the Olympics and established a benchmark for Indian shooters of the next generation. She is often discussed alongside contemporaries such as Saurabh Chaudhary, Esha Singh, and Sarabjot Singh in the context of India's pistol shooting revival.
Outside competitive shooting, Bhaker has spoken in interviews about her interest in the Bhagavad Gita, which she has cited as a source of mental composure during competition. She pursued her undergraduate studies in political science at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi.