She scripted a glorious history with her manifold achievements, including opening India’s medal account at the 2024 Games. First, she became the first-ever Indian woman to enter the final of an Olympic shooting event and eventually win a medal. To gauge the enormity of it, just think that India had to wait for 40 long years for a young girl from Jhajjar in Haryana to win the shooting Olympic medal after separate events for women were added at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
With her bronze in Women’s 10-m Air Pistol Individual event, Manu ended India’s
12-year wait for a shooting medal at the Games and became only the fifth Indian to win an Olympic medal in shooting after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar. This would have been enough for her to secure a place in sporting history. But the only shooter to qualify for three shooting events at the Paris Games in India’s 21-member shooting contingent went on to win a second bronze with Sarabjot Singh in the 10-m Air Pistol Mixed Team event and became the first Indian to win two medals at a single Olympic Games since Independence. She is also the second Indian woman to win two Olympic medals after P.V. Sindhu. Though she narrowly missed her third Olympic medal, finishing 4th in the Women’s 25-m Pistol event, she had already accomplished what was “truly monumental”, in Mr. Bindra’s words.
The life of India’s 22-year-old newest sporting star offers many inspiring lessons: her hard work, dedication, highly focused approach, love for what she does, devotion, and calm and quiet approach. However, I decided to highlight her story here because of what she went through and learned after the mishap that happened with her at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In Tokyo, a pistol malfunction denied Manu a shot at a medal and left her shattered. Her disappointment went to the extent that she was not enjoying the sport anymore and even thought of not continuing shooting. That was when Bhagavad Gita became her companion and helped regain her interest and focus in the game. Her consequent successes at international events, including qualification trials for the Paris Olympics under the guidance of her mental, fitness and yoga coach, father figure and friend, Mr. Jaspal Rana, did the rest of the job.
There was a remarkable nerveless ease about Manu’s shooting in Paris, where she showed no remaining scar from her disappointing outing at the Tokyo Olympics and the tumultuous few years that followed. Where she excelled was her mental preparation, which can be as crucial as physical training in sports like her’s. In response to a question after her first win at the Paris Games, she said, “I read a lot of Gita, so what was going on in my mind was just do what you are meant to do and leave the rest to your destiny.” She elaborated, “In Gita, Lord Krishna says to Arjun that you focus on your karma and not the outcome of your karma. That went through my mind in the final moments: Do your thing.” This spiritual guidance helped her navigate the intense pressure one has to face on the Olympic stage. Her ability to focus on her actions rather than the possible outcome allowed her to remain calm and perform at her best.
This can also be beneficial learning for you while preparing for tough competitions like UPSC CSE and other examinations for an extended period. The Bhagavad Gita’s teaching of focusing on duty rather than the result has often been reminded by a popular Hindi song—“Karm kiye ja, phal ki chinta mat kar e insaan” (Man, do your duty without bothering about the result). It resonates deeply with modern psychological theories on performance anxiety and stress management.
With several practical steps and techniques, you can incorporate the teaching of focusing on duty rather than results
into your daily life. First, detach yourself from performance. Always remember that success and failure are part of
the journey, not a reflection of your worth. Second, focus on the controllable—your actions, efforts and attitude.
Third, adopt a process-oriented mindset by shifting your focus from achieving perfection to making consistent progress. Fourth, regularly engage in self-reflection to assess your performance and mindset. Last, set realistic goals and celebrate progress.
With these words, I wish you all the best in all your endeavours to emerge victorious in whatever field you choose, like Manu Bhaker.
