Exclusive/ 'You need to relax': Manu Bhaker Reveals How Her Family Inspired Her Journey to Become a Shooter

Manu Bhaker rose to stardom after her performance in the Paris Olympics. She clinched two medals in the individual and mixed doubles round, which made her an inspiration to several aspiring shooters. But Manu wasn't inclined towards shooting initially, as she was inclined towards contact sports. The double Olympics medalist reflected on how her family played a role for her to recognize her interest in shooting.

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Manu Bhaker Reveals How Her Mother Helped Her Find The Passion for Shooting

During an exclusive interview with Republic World, Olympian Manu Bhaker opened up on her beginnings and early life when she was particularly fascinated by contact sports like boxing and martial arts. But when she suffered from injuries, her mother advised taking a break and then trying to finish as many things as she wanted. She tried out various disciplines, including academics, before eventually pursuing shooting.

"So, before this, I was into boxing, martial arts and everything, like contact sports. I'm not a big wrestling fan, though. Oh. I used to do a little bit of kabaddi as well. But later when I got so many injuries, I used to get like, hit so often that, sometimes, I was too hard myself. Not like I think you wanted to hurt myself. I think, just like I, I used to do certain things at times.

"So, due to that, my mom was like, you need to stop all of this. You need to relax a bit in life and just actually try to finish as many things as you want in life. And then I started to, kind of try as many things. Maybe studies and everything, maybe these different sports anything art and craft anything. So I used to participate in everything and. In school or academies, everything, I used to participate in. And then later on, I never took anything seriously. But this is going to be the goal. I never do anything to the school shooting as well. It was like last year until last year. I was having second thoughts about it," Manu Bhaker said.

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The Paris Olympics' Double Medalist also expressed that he eventually realized she wanted to take up shooting. She used to take part in the academy school, which was the sole one in their district.    

"It took me some time to actually realize, okay, this is what I want to do with my life. And I started, like, I, we had this academy school, a shooting academy for the time, no renew option. It was the only one academy in the entire district," Bhaker added.