Ayonika Paul (born 23 September 1992) is an Indian

shooter Shooter may refer to: People * Rod Beck (1968–2007), American baseball pitcher nicknamed "Shooter" * Shooter Jennings (born 1979), country music singer * Evan McPherson (born 1999), American football placekicker nicknamed "Shooter" * Adrian Sh ...

who competes in the

10 metre 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. She won the silver medal in the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. Ayonika Paul was confirmed by the Selection Committee of NRAI to represent India at the Rio Olympics 2016, where she finished at 47th position in the qualification round out of 51 contestants.

Early life

She was born in September 1992 at

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, India and is the daughter of Ashim Paul, a Railway employee and Aparna Paul. She studied at Swami Vivekananda high school in Chembur, Mumbai. She graduated with a

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded to a college graduate majoring in an engineering discipline at a higher education institution. In the United Kingdom, a Ba ...

degree from

Pillai's Institute of Information Technology Engineering, Media Studies & Research Pillai College of Engineering (Autonomous) is an engineering college in New Panvel, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India was established in 1999 (commencement of courses from A.Y. 2000–2001) as a self financed Malayalam Linguistic Minority autonomo ...

affiliated to

University of Mumbai University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

, — and has completed a Master's in Electronics Engineering. Ayonika Paul was once an excellent swimmer but slowly her interest developed in the rifle shooting. She had earlier won Bronze in ISSF World Cup 2014 in Slovenia. She holds a BE Electronics degree and is a member of the

National Rifle Association of India The National Rifle Association of India was founded on 17 April, 1951 with a view to promote and popularize the shooting sports in India as well as for self-defense teaching purposes. The NRAI arranges national-level shooting competitions and t ...

Early Training

She started out as a swimming champion in her early days, with her father as the coach. However her interest turned to shooting in 2006, when she saw Rajyavardhan Singh Rathod at the Athens Olympics in 2004, where he won the silver medal for India. She got her first rifle, an imported Feinwerkvan for Rs 1.2 lakh which her father provided for through loans and thus started her journey in shooting. Her weekly practice was done at Pune, which had better training facilities and she had to juggle through her studies and shooting practice to achieve her goals.

Career

2007- She won her first ever medal, double gold, at the international junior competition in Suhl,

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. 2008- A gold medal at the International Junior Shooting Competition in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

paved her way towards an international career and brought her into the limelight. 2011- She won a bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships in Kuwait and was ranked third. 2012- She won the bronze medal at the Asian Airgun Championships in 2015 in the 10m for Women's 10m Air Rifle. 2014- As well as clinching the silver medal at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

, held at

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

she finished seventh in the women's 10-metre air rifle event at the

2014 Asian Games The 2014 Asian Games (), officially known as the 17th Asian Games () and also known as Incheon 2014 (), were a pan-Asian multi-sport event held from 19 September to 4 October 2014 in Incheon, South Korea. On 17 April 2007, Incheon was awarded ...

. 2015-She represents Maharashtra in the National Games and won the silver medal at the National Games held at Kerala. 2016- She won the silver medal at the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

(IND) and thus became one of the qualifiers for shooting at the

Rio Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, but had an early exit in the same. She was backed and supported by the NGO,

Olympic Gold Quest OGQ is a program of the Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games, a non profit (Section 8) company, which sponsors Indian Olympic athletes and Paralympic/ Disabled athletes. OGQ aims to create a level playing field for Indian athletes to e ...

for Rio. 2014-Bachelor in Electronics Engineering from

, New Panvel. 2018- Masters in Electronics Engineering specialising in Image Processing from University of Mumbai. Having worked on Real Time Adaptive Target Tracking using computer vision, her manuscript was published in Journal of Electronic Design Engineering.

Accolades

She is a recipient of the

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

government's Shiv Chhatrapati award.

ISSF World Medal Tally

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Ayonika 1993 births Living people Indian female sport shooters Olympic shooters for India Shooters at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists in shooting Commonwealth Games shooters for India Shooters at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Asian Games shooters for India Shooters at the 2014 Asian Games Sport shooters from Mumbai Sportswomen from Maharashtra 21st-century Indian sportswomen Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games