Swapnil Kusale clinched his first Olympic bronze and third medal for India on August 1, 2024, in the 50m rifle 3 positions event in the Summer Olympics games being held in Paris.
Liu Yukun from China bagged the gold with 463.6 points, while Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine won the silver medal scoring 461.3. Kusale scored an aggregate of 451.4 in six rounds. He had finished seventh in the qualification.
Chateauroux was Kusale’s first ever Olympics. He had secured his Olympic quota by coming fourth in the World Championships held in Cairo. In the same event, Kusale was part of the Indian men’s team that won bronze.
This will be the third medal for India, while the other two were also from shooting. Manu Bhaker opened India’s account in the Olympics this year with a bronze in the 10m air pistol. She once again bagged bronze along with Sarabjot Singh in the 10m air pistol mixed team event.
The last time a 50m rifle shooter made it to the Olympic finals was in 2012 London when Joydeep Karmakar finished fourth in 50m rifle prone event, a discipline which has been discontinued at the Olympics.