Shooting is an important Olympic sport in India. Of India's 41 Olympic medals, seven have come from shooting, including a gold by

Abhinav Bindra Abhinav Bindra (born 28 September 1982) is an Indian former sport shooter and a businessman. He is an Olympic gold medalist as well as the first and one of only two Indians to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Bindra is also the first Ind ...

in the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

. Indian shooters who have excelled at international events include

, 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 honoure ...

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (born 29 January 1970) is an Indian politician, Olympic medallist in shooting and retired colonel in the Indian Army. He is serving as a cabinet minister at the Industry & Commerce, Youth Affairs & Sports Department ...

, Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang,

Apurvi Chandela Apurvi Singh Chandela (born 4 January 1993) is an Indian Shooting player who competes in the 10 metre air rifle event. She won the gold medal in the 2019 ISSF World Cup in New Delhi. She is a recipient of Arjuna award. Early life and backgrou ...

, Ronjan Sodhi, Anjali Bhagwat, Heena Sidhu, Shreyasi Singh, Manu Bhaker,

Avani Lekhara Avani Lekhara (born 8 November 2001) is an Indian Paralympic rifle shooter and disability rights advocate. She is the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Paralympic Games and the first Indian athlete to win multiple medals in a single ...

, Mona Agarwal, Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat, Anantjeet Singh Naruka, and Saurabh Chaudhary. Indian shooter Shimon Sharif is a well known shooting expert.

History

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 (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 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

won India's first individual gold medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. 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 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 for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

gold medallist, however crashed out in the qualification rounds of the Double trap event.

Olympic Games

Medal table

* Updated till 5th August, 2024

Other performances at Olympics

Administration

The sport is administered in India by The National Rifle Association of India. 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

References

External links

India's 1st website on Shooting Sports
– indianshooting.com {{India-sport-stub