Deepali Deshpandey
Indian shooters performed very well in Paris Olympics 2024. After winning the bronze medal in 10m air pistol, Manu Bhaker along with Sarabjot Singh also targeted bronze in the mixed team event. In this way, Manu created history by becoming the first Indian to win two medals in the same Olympics. The third medal in shooting was won by Swapnil Kusale in 50m men’s rifle 3 position. Such a great performance of Indian shooters was never seen before in an Olympic Games. This is the story that we all saw but there is also a story that most people are unaware of.
In fact, coaches like Gagan Narang and Deepali Deshpande played a big role in the excellent performance of Indian shooters in the Paris Olympics. Deepali Deshpande, who has won a silver medal in the Busan 2002 Asian Games shooting team event, is a shooting coach and now she has revealed the secret behind the success of Indian shooters in Paris.
This is how shooters got success
Former shooter and coach Deepali Deshpande revealed in an exclusive interview with India TV’s Sports Editor Sameep Rajguru how Indian shooters achieved such a great success in Paris. Deepali said that her journey with the National Rifle Association of India started in the year 2012. She was made the chief coach of the junior team, after which many shooters hoisted the tricolor at the international level under her tutelage.
Deepali, who has been coaching since 2010, started coaching Anjum Modgil, Shreyanka, Akhil and Swapnil Kusale at the junior level and within a few years all the shooters started making India proud at the international level. Although Deepali was very disappointed with the disappointing performance of Indian shooters in the Tokyo Olympics, she did not give up, the result of which we all got to see in Tokyo.
She said that she was very disappointed at not getting a medal in Tokyo but this time she was hopeful that the medal drought would end. She said that rifle shooting is a very technical game and her shooters have now become technically very strong. That is why her goal is to win more medals in the next Olympics.
More medals expected in next Olympics
The coach further said that now her target is the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and for this she wants to prepare better so that the number of medals can be increased. She emphasized the most on planning and said that planning has to be done for every stage. She also revealed an interesting anecdote related to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She told that after returning from Tokyo Olympics she was very disappointed and then she wrote a letter to the PM. She sent this letter through Swapnil Kusale. The special thing was that Deepali also got a reply to this letter. On this she thanked PM Modi.
Deepali termed Swapnil Kusale’s medal as very special for Maharashtra and the country. Kusale became the first player from Maharashtra to win a medal in the Olympics after 72 years. Earlier, KD Jadhav had won an individual medal in wrestling.