India’s ace shooter Manu Bhaker and her partner Sarabjot Singh earned the country another bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The duo defeated the Korean pair of Wonho Lee and Jin ye Ohin in the mixed team 10m air pistol match on Tuesday, adding to India’s medals tally. In the process, Manu also earned a historic first in India’s Olympic history, becoming the only athlete from the country to claim two medals in a single event, since independence in 1947. Manu had earlier won a bronze medal in the women’s individual 10m air pistol final.
Bhaker had won her first Olympic medal when she clinched a bronze in the women’s individual 10m air pistol final. She doubled her personal medal haul and also extended India’s tally to two in the process.
It was also the first time that India managed to win a medal in a team event at the Paris Olympic Games, doing so by beating the Koreans 16-10 in the bronze medal match.
The only Indian athlete to have won two medals in a single Olympics campaign is Norman Pritchard won two silver medals in athletics during the 1900 Games when India was under British rule. After Pritchard, no Indian athlete has managed to win two medals in a single campaign.
There are a couple of Indian athletes who have won two medals in the Olympic Games cumulatively in their career. They are Sushil Kumar (wrestling) and PV Sindhu (badminton).
Sushil bagged a bronze medal at the Beijing 2008 games before earning a silver medal at London 2012. In the process, he became the first-ever individual athlete from India to win multiple Olympic medals post-independence, over two different campaigns.
Shuttler Sindhu won silver in the Rio Olympics, after being beaten by Spain’s Carolina Marin in the final. It was the first time that India had won a silver medal in Olympic badminton. Sindh later won bronze at Tokyo 2020. Sindhu is the only woman athlete from India to win multiple medals at the Olympic Games, though over two different editions.
