Bronze Bullet: Swapnil Kusale bags India’s first Olympic medal in 50m rifle 3 positions event

Rohit Mahajan in Paris

Swapnil Kusale, India’s newest Olympic hero, speaks like a Zen master — the biggest day of his life, yet his mien is that of a man who’s had a banal day, as if picking up an Olympic medal is part of his weekly routine.
It’s not routine, of course, because Kusale today became the first Indian to win a medal, a bronze, in a 3 Positions category (50 metres) at the Olympic Games. Soon after winning the bronze, Kusale said his eyes were unseeing his competitors, his ears unhearing the cheers for them. “I did not see the scoreboard. I did not see how the others were scoring, how I was doing,” he said. “I could hear the sounds, the scores and cheers for the others, but I was ignoring that… Maine socha, sunna hi nahin hai… I was not going to listen to them at all!” Kusale, a ticket collector with the Indian Railways and son of a schoolteacher father and sarpnach mother, is 28 and has had days of glory in the past, but he has a natural diffidence and a low voice. However, he’s put himself in the category of the greats of Indian shooting.The 3 Positions category is particularly challenging, for the shooter’s perspective of the target changes dramatically — it’s high in the standing position, lower in the kneeling position, and when the shooter is prone on the ground, on his tummy, it’s lower still. It requires significant adjustments, and Kusale took to this format because he loved to shoot as much as he could, spending hours in the range.
Speaking at the National Shooting Centre at Chateauroux, some 270 km away from Paris, Kusale said the medal resulted from years of labour.

He had to labour hard today, too — he was at the sixth spot after the first 15 shots in kneeling positions, with 153.3. He did better in the prone and standing positions, rising to third after Stage 1. At one stage he was in the silver medal position, but a 9.1 and 10.1 sent him down to fourth. He recovered well to register a 10.3 and, even better, a 10.5. Now, he was up to third and never let go, ending up with 451.4 points. China’s Liu Yukun won the gold at 463.6 and Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish (461.3) won the silver.
From Kambalwadi village — known for organic farming and a ban on drugs — near Kolhapur to Paris, Kusale’s journey is stuff dreams are made of.
Scouted as a teenager for the Maharashtra Government’s Kreeda Prabodhini scheme at age 14, Kusale joined a residential institute, Bhogawati School in Parite, Kolhapur.
He made a mark at the national and Asian level, and got a job with the Railways in 2015 — it was only then that he was able to afford his first rifle, hoarding his salary for six months so that he could save Rs 3 lakh he needed for his own gun.
But it’s not the gun — it’s the person behind the gun who really matters. Today, holding the gun, Kusale made it matter by keeping calm.
“Like all shooters, my heartbeat too races in such situations,” he said. “But I kept my breath quiet.” He had no desire, no aim for the day, he said. “I was only focusing on my processes — on my body, the target, the shots… To keep my breath low.”
He cared not a bit for the noise for his opponents, he said — but he did hear the Indians shouting themselves hoarse behind him. “Behind me were the India supporters, and I wanted them happy and I wanted their noise, more and more,” he said. “I heard their noise, and I was happy.”