Manu Bhaker's glorious run at the Paris Olympics 2024 has made the 22-year-old shooter from Haryana a household name in India. Manu is first Indian female shooter to win a medal at the Olympics. Jaspal Rana, a champion shooter himself during his playing days, was a big factor in shaping Manu's career. Rana was present in the stands when Manu won two bronze medals at the Paris Games to make history.(Paris Olympics 2024 medals tally)
Manu had the chance of adding a third medal to her haul from the Paris Games, but fell short as she finished fourth in the women's 25m pistol event. Rana talked to NDTV after Manu's event ended and explained how he guided Manu Achieve great heights.
"I don't take that credit (of being the biggest factor behind Manu's win). There are many people involved. Everybody helped in their own way – the SAI, the government, the TOPs," Jaspal Rana told NDTV.
"Manu was ready without me also. We train that way also. She was trained in a way that even if I am not there in the field of play, it does not matter. We saw those trials in Bhopal. I had the rights to sit with her but I did not. I sat with the public. You can check the footage. I did not involve myself in the entire trials. But this is a bigger event. A kid sometimes needs a little push. Luckily I was part of it. Me being here is totally be cause of PT Usha ma'am."
Rana also said that more than the 'technique' of shooting good scores, it the mental aspect that he worked on with Manu.
"You can't teach them how to shoot. They are next generation. They are better software. Teaching them is not a problem. We just need to fine tune. When you train a lot, you make small mistakes which matter a lot in the long run. We have to be careful about that. People think I teach her my way of doing things. However, how I used to train back in the day, there is no comparison. Trust me, she will not survive how I used to shoot. I did not have any physio. I used to train for seven-eight hours," Rana said.
"I used to be available everywhere. I had no social life. I encourage her to have a social life, meet friends. Otherwise, she will get burned out. If that happens, the results will not come."
Can Manu Bhaker ever be a normal girl again?
"No. You have to pay a price. Can Sachin Tendulkar walk on the streets? No. There's a price that you have to pay. You get luxury but you lose a lot of freedom. I can walk freely. People don't recognise me, I am good with that," he said.
After her first medal, Manu had said reading Bhagavad Gita helped her a lot. Rana said inculcating Gita's principles helped Manu a lot.
"She is in a war-field, where she has to take decisions. She did not let her parents come here. We knew if something went wrong, it will be blamed on them. I can take that blame but not the parents," he said.
So, are Rana-Bhaker, the Krishna-Arjun of Indian shooting?
"I am somebody who follows Krishna, you can call her Arjun," Rana said.