Shooting is an important Olympic sport in India. Of India's 35 Olympic medals, four have come from shooting, including a gold by
Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Apjit Bindra is an Indian Olympic gold medallist, retired sport shooter, and businessman.2008 Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nati ...
. Indian shooters who have excelled at international events include
Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Apjit Bindra is an Indian Olympic gold medallist, retired sport shooter, and businessman.Jaspal Rana,
Jitu Rai
Jitu Rai (born 26 August 1987) is an Indian Army Subedar Major who competes in the 10 metre air pistol and 50 metre pistol events. The Government of India announced the Khel Ratna Award for him in 2016. In 2020, the Government of India honoured ...
Anjali Bhagwat
Anjali Bhagwat (born 5 December 1969) is a professional Indian sport shooter. She became the World Number One in 10m Air Rifle in 2002. She also won her first World Cup Final in Milan, in 2003, with a score of 399/400.
Anjali won the ISS ...
,
Heena Sidhu
Heena Sidhu (born 29 August 1989) is an Indian sport shooter. On 7 April 2014, Sidhu became the first Indian pistol shooter to reach number one in world rankings by the International Shooting Sport Federation. In 2013, Sidhu became the first In ...
,
Shreyasi Singh
Shreyasi Singh (born 29 August 1991) is an Indian shooter and politician. She competes in the double trap event. She won a gold medal in the Shooting at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia - Women's double trap and a silver me ...
Anisa Sayyed
Anisa Sayyed (born 22 September 1980) is an Indian female pistol shooter who won two gold medals in 2010 Commonwealth Games. She also won a gold medal at the SAF games in 2006. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she won a silver in the 25m event. ...
Shooting sports have a varied history in India. Initially they were played by royal people of British India for amusement and recreation. The highest governing body of shooting sports in India is
National Rifle Association of India
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) was founded in 1951 with a view to promote and popularize the shooting sports in India. The first speaker of Lok Sabha, Sh. G.V. Mavlankar was the founder and the first president of NRAI followed by ...
(NRAI), which was established on 17 April 1951. From then on India achieved some success in the Olympic games by winning a Gold. But largely this sport is not affordable to command Indians because of a lack of shooting ranges and facilities in the country.
2012 Olympics
The Indian shooting contingent for the
2012 London
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
was one of the largest to date. There were a total of 11 shooters including 4 female shooters. India's first medal in the 2012 Olympics was when Gagan Narang won the bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event. This was the same event in which
Abhinav Bindra
Abhinav Apjit Bindra is an Indian Olympic gold medallist, retired sport shooter, and businessman.Beijing. The second medal came from the unheralded army man Vijay Kumar when he won the silver in the 25m rapid fire pistol event after finishing 4th in the qualification rounds. He had to fend off some tough competition from the third placed Chinese Ding Feng.
A notable performance was made by
Joydeep Karmakar
Joydeep Karmakar (born 7 September 1979) is an Indian sports shooter from Kolkata, West Bengal. He represented India in rifle prone events in various championships. started his sports career in 1989. He became a Junior National Champion in his f ...
who finished 4th in the 50m rifle prone event. A strong medal prospect Ronjan Sodhi who is an
Asian Games
The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...
gold medallist, however crashed out in the qualification rounds of the Double trap event.
Medal winners at Summer Olympics
Total medals won by Indian Shooters in Major tournaments
Other Notable Performances at Summer Olympics
Administration
The sport is administered in India by
The National Rifle Association of India
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) was founded in 1951 with a view to promote and popularize the shooting sports in India. The first speaker of Lok Sabha, Sh. G.V. Mavlankar was the founder and the first president of NRAI followed ...
. The association organises the following tournaments every year:
* National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC)
* All India G.V. Mavlankar Shooting Championship (AIGVMSC)
* Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Memorial Masters Shooting Championship
* Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting Championship
* All India Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Inter School Shooting Championship