Paris Olympics 2024: Railway TTE Swapnil Kusale Wins Third Bronze Medal For India In 50m Rifle

On day six of the Paris Olympics 2024, India got its third medal as Swapnil Kusale clinched bronze in the 50m Rifle 3-Position.

Notably, the earlier two medals that India won, were also in shooting. Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh won bronze in the 10-metre mixed team air pistol event.

The first medal was also a bronze which Bhaker won in the 10 metre air pistol event. This makes her the first Indian female athlete to win two Olympic medals in a single edition.

In the 50m rifle 3 position event final, Swapnil Kusale finished the kneeling stage in sixth place with a score of 153.3.

By the end of the prone stage, he had improved to fifth place with a total score of 310.1, trailing third-placed Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine by just 0.6 points.

During the first five standing shots, Kusale scored 51.1, advancing to fourth place and closing the gap to just 0.4 points behind the third spot.

Kusale, born in 1995, works as a Travelling Ticket Examiner (TTE) with the Pune Railway Division. Coming from an agricultural background, his father enrolled him in Maharashtra's sports programme, Krida Prabhodini.

After a year of intensive training, he chose to specialise in shooting. His international achievements started in 2015 when he won gold in the 50m rifle prone 3 position event in the junior category at the Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait.

In the Asian Championship, Korea in 2023, he won the silver medal in the 10m air rifle individual event and secured his place at the Olympics 2024.