Manu Bhaker

Manu Bhaker (born 18 February 2002) is an Indian sport shooter. She has 2 medals at the Olympic Games, 23 medals at the World Championships and World Cups, as well as 12 medals at the Asian Games and Asian Championships. At the 2024 Olympics, she became the first Indian woman shooter to win a medal by clinching the bronze in the 10m pistol event. She won another bronze in 10m pistol mixed team, becoming the first Indian to win two medals in a single Olympic Games. Bhaker is also the youngest Indian to win gold medals at the World Cup.

She has won gold at the Commonwealth and Asian Games. While she won the gold at the 2022 Asian Games in the women's 25m pistol team event, Bhaker won the gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the 10-metre air pistol event. She set a Commonwealth Games record during the same edition. In 2018, a 16 year old Bhaker was the youngest Indian to win gold at the World Cup.

Early life Bhaker was born in Goria village of Jhajjar district in Haryana. Her father Ram Kishan Bhaker is a chief engineer in the Merchant Navy.

Bhaker did her schooling at Universal Higher Senior Secondary School in Goria, which was started by her grandfather Raj Karan. As a 14-year-old, she decided to focus on the sport of shooting, and with an investment of ₹1,50,000 by her father, she started her training. Along with her sports, she kept her education going and went on to study Political Science at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, graduating in 2022. Later obtained a masters in Public Administration at DAV College, Chandigarh in 2024. She is currently pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma in Sports Management at Indian Institute of Management Rohtak.

Career Beginnings (2016–2020) In 2016, Bhaker started training with her first coach, Anil Jakhar and prepared for the junior world tournaments. and defeated multiple World Cup medalist Heena Sidhu and broke Sidhu's record of 240.8 points, scoring 242.3 points in the final. Bhaker scored 237.5 the final match against Zavalaa, who scored 237.1.

Bhaker won her second gold medal at the World Cup in the 10-meter Air Pistol mixed team event. She was paired with fellow countryman Om Prakash Mitharval. The pair shot a score of 476.1 points, defeating Sandra Reitz and Christian Reitz who scored 475.2.

Bhaker scored 388/400 points at 2018 Commonwealth Games in women's 10m air pistol qualifying round and qualified for the finals. In the final round of the women's 10m air pistol event during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, she secured the gold medal with setting a new Commonwealth Games record of 240.9 points.

In 2018 Asian Games, she scored a game's record score of 593 in the qualification round of 25m Air pistol event. But she failed to win a medal there, as she finished 6th in the final. Eventually, her compatriot Rahi Sarnobat clinched the Gold in this event.

At the Youth Olympics 2018, Manu Bhaker shot 236.5 to stand at the top of the points table in the women's 10m air pistol event. The Indian flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympics is also the World Cup and Commonwealth Games gold medalist. The 16-year-old Manu became the first shooter from India and the first female athlete from India to grab a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games.

In 2018, national pistol coach Jaspal Rana was the mentor for Bhaker and said that “ Manu is mentally very strong" and we need to groom talented shooters like her for the 2020 Olympics”.

In May 2019 she qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 10m pistol event via a fourth place finish at the Munich ISSF World Cup. This came days after her pistol jammed in the finals of the 25m pistol event when she was leading, eventually forcing her to forfeit due to her gun not being able to fire.

In all the four Pistol & Rifle ISSF World Cups in 2019, she won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed event with Saurabh Chaudhry as her partner, making the pair a strong contender for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Rising star (2021–2024) In the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, Bhaker faced multiple problems, including pistol malfunction, which led to her missing the finals for both the 10m and 25m air pistol. She partnered Saurabh Chaudhary in the mixed 10m air pistol team, but in spite of finishing the qualifying round with the highest score, she finished only eighth in the next round and missed the final. After the Tokyo Olympics, she was very disappointed but soon found motivation from the Bhagavad Gita verses such as “Focus on karma, not on the outcome of the karma.”

At the 2022 Asian Games, Bhaker won the team gold for India in the women's 25m pistol team event, along with Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan.

In 2023, Bhaker re-united with her coach, Jaspal Rana, to prepare for the 2024 Olympics, and the reinstatement of Rana was supported by IOC president PT Usha. Rana developed a rigorous training schedule for Bhaker by replicating the routine of Olympic matches in their daily schedule.

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Bhaker won two bronze medals. First, she won bronze in the women's 10 metre air pistol event, becoming the first female shooter from India to win a medal at any Olympics.

In 2025, she was awarded the Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honour, for her consistent performance in shooting, making her the youngest Indian shooter to receive the award.

Performance record Olympic Games

World Championship

World Cup

Youth Olympics

Junior World Championship

Junior World Cup

Awards and nominations