Arjun Babuta (born 24 January 1999) is an Indian

sport shooter Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such ...

who competes in the

10 meter air rifle 10 meter air rifle is an International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, shot at a bullseye target over a distance of using a calibre air rifle with a maximum weight of . It is one of the ISSF sports governed in shooting spor ...

event. Babuta competed at the

2024 Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

, where he narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish in the men's 10 m air rifle event.

Early life

Babuta was born on 24 January 1999 in Jalalabad, Fazilka. He is the son of Neeraj Babuta and the famous Punjabi author-poet Deepti Babuta. He later moved to

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

where he pursued a career in shooting. He obtained his undergraduate degree from

DAV College, Chandigarh DAV College is a co-educational college in Sector 10, Chandigarh, India. It was established in 1958 and is affiliated to the Panjab University, Panjab University, Chandigarh. The college is awarded 'A' Grade by National Assessment and Accredita ...

, and is studying mass communication and journalism at the

Lovely Professional University Lovely Professional University (LPU) is a private university located in Phagwara, Punjab, India. Established under the Lovely Professional University Act, 2005, it commenced operations in 2006. LPU is accredited by the University Grants Commi ...

as of 2022.

Career

Babuta won one gold medal and one bronze medal in the 10m air rifle event at 2016 ISSF Junior World Cup in Gabala. In 2017, he won silver at the 10th Asian Airgun Championship, Wako City in Japan. He also won the silver in the 27th Meeting of Shooting Hopes 2017 international junior competition, Plzen, Czech Republic. He won one bronze in

2018 ISSF Junior World Cup The 2018 ISSF Junior World Cup is the annual edition of the ISSF Junior World Cup, governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) is the governing body of Shooting at the Summer Olympi ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. A career-threatening back problem kept him out of action from 2018 to 2020. He won gold medals at the

2022 ISSF World Cup The 2022 ISSF World Cup is the annual edition of the ISSF World Cup in the Olympic shooting events, governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. Calendar The calendar for the 2022 World Cup A world cup is a global sporting compe ...

in Changwon in 10 metre air rifle, both in the individual and team events. At the

2023 Asian Shooting Championships The 2023 Asian Shooting Championships were the 15th Asian Shooting Championships and took place from 22 October to 2 November 2023, at Changwon Shooting Range, Changwon, South Korea. 813 competitors from 30 countries took part in the competition. ...

, Babuta won silver in the 10 metre air rifle event, earning India a quota place to the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

in Paris. He also won gold in the team event with Divyansh Singh Panwar and Hriday Hazarika. At the

in Paris, the pair of Babuta and

Ramita Jindal Ramita Jindal (born 16 January 2004) is an Indian sport shooter. She won a silver medal in the women's 10 metre air rifle team event and a bronze medal in the women's 10 metre air rifle event at the 2022 Asian Games. She is a student of Hansra ...

finished 6th among 28 teams in the qualifying round of the 10 metre air rifle mixed team event, failing to progress to the medal rounds. Babuta made it to the final of men's 10 metre air rifle after placing seventh in qualification. He finished fourth in the closely-contested final.

Issues Raised

Arjun Babuta raised the issues of not receiving support from the Punjab State Government even though he was allegedly promised a government job in 2022.

References

External links

Arjun Babuta
at ISSF {{DEFAULTSORT:Babuta, Arjun Living people 1999 births Indian male sport shooters 21st-century Indian sportsmen ISSF rifle shooters Sport shooters from Punjab, India Shooters at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic shooters for India Medalists at the 2021 Summer Universiade FISU World University Games gold medalists for India Summer World University Games medalists in shooting