The man who turned fortunes of India in Olympics- Gagan Narang

8 years ago at London Olympics on 30 June 2012, an ace shooter by name of Gagan Narang won a bronze medal in 10-meter air rifle shooting. It was the first medal in Olympics and India won 5 more medals, taking the count to 6 and making it the successful Indian Olympics.

Gagan Narang was born in Punjabi family and hails from the Simla Gujran village of Haryana’s Panipat. His father’s professional commitment made them shift to Hyderabad where he was brought up. He finished his graduation from Osmania University (where many big names like Azharuddin, Ayub, Bhogle had passed out). His father had the foresight to see shooting talent in his son because at 2 years of age Gagan had shot a balloon with an air pistol.

"I had rehearsed the sequences in my mind until the very last shot of the finals."#OnThisDay, @gaGunNarang won the bronze medal 🥉 in 10m air rifle at #London2012. In conversation with @SantadeepDey, he relives his experience at the Olympic Village.https://t.co/EAicypx1W9

— Sportstar (@sportstarweb) July 30, 2020

He presented him an Air gun on 1997 and from there he took up shooting seriously and would spend hours practising and perfecting his shooting skills in backyards of his home in Begumpet. He started winning medals at, Commonwealth games, Asian games, commonwealth championships, ISSF world cup and also won a creditable bronze at Olympics can easily be termed as “Mahakumbh of Sports”.

He didn’t do well in Athens and Beijing but did extremely well at the 2012 London Olympics to win bronze with a score of 701.1 missing the silver medal by just 0.4. He could not replicate the performance in 2016 Olympics but the third-place podium finishes definite earns him a spot in Indian Hall of Fame if ever there is made one.