India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, with a lone athlete Norman Pritchard winning two medals – both silver – in athletics and became the first Asian nation to win an Olympic medal. The nation first sent a team to the Summer Olympic Games in 1920 and has participated in every Summer Games since then. India has also competed at several Winter Olympic Games beginning in 1964. Indian athletes have won 35 medals, all at the Summer Games. For a period of time, the Indian Men's Field Hockey Team was dominant in Olympic competition, winning eleven medals in twelve Olympics between 1928 and 1980. The run included eight gold medals of which six were won consecutively from 1928 to 1956.
Gagan Narang is an Indian sport shooter, supported by the Olympic Gold Quest. He won the bronze medal in the Men's 10 m Air Rifle Event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a final score of 701.1 on 30 July 2012.
Abhinav Apjit Bindra is an Indian Olympic gold medallist, retired sport shooter, and businessman. He is the first and one of only 2 Indians to win an Individual Olympic Gold Medal. He is the first Indian to have held concurrently the world and Olympic titles for the men's 10-meter air rifle event, having earned those honors at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships. Bindra has also won seven medals at the Commonwealth Games and three medals at the Asian Games.
Shooting competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing were held from August 9 to August 17, at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall and Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field. Of the fifteen events, the host country won five.
Mittal Champions Trust was a trust which supported Indian athletes with world-beating potential. It was funded by Lakshmi Mittal and was initiated by his son-in-law Amit Bhatia.
India competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. India was represented by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). A contingent of 57 athletes in 12 sports represented India, and had a support-staff of 42 officials.
The Men's 10 metre air rifle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on August 11 at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall. Abhinav Bindra became the first ever individual Olympic champion of India.
Henri Häkkinen is a Finnish sport shooter. He won the bronze medal in Men's 10m air rifle at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He was leading with Abhinav Bindra of India until the final shot. Bindra won gold with a last shot of 10.8, whereas Häkkinen could score only 9.7, thereby settling for a bronze. China's Zhu Qinan got the silver with a final shot of 10.5. Henri Häkkinen's manager is Finnish Sports Management Agency, SportElite.
The Walther LG300 is a pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air rifle designed for 10 metre air rifle match shooting.
Rohit David Brijnath is a veteran Indian sports journalist. Early in his career, Brijnath was a key member of the now-defunct weekly magazine Sportsworld, where he wrote alongside young journalists such as Mudar Patherya and Andy O'Brien. He has also worked for India Today and has written a recurring sports column for the BBC News website since 2004. He has also written for the Indian publication The Sportstar. He currently resides in Singapore with his wife, where he writes for the Straits Times. He also has a column called 'Game Theory' in the Indian publication 'Mint'.
India competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. A total of 83 athletes, 60 men and 23 women, competed in 13 sports. Men's field hockey was the only team-based sport in which India had its representation in these Olympic Games. India also marked its Olympic return in weightlifting, after the International Weightlifting Federation imposed a two-year suspension for the nation's athletes in Beijing because of a doping scandal.
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 in the 2008 Olympics. Indian shooters who have excelled at international events include Abhinav Bindra, Jaspal Rana, Jitu Rai, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Apurvi Chandela, Ronjan Sodhi, Anjali Bhagwat, Heena Sidhu, Shreyasi Singh, Manu Bhaker, Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat and Saurabh Chaudhary.
James Charles Huckle is an English sport shooter, who represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics. He won three gold medals at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in India and at the 2010 Commonwealth Games he won a total of four medals, two silver and two bronze.
Jonathan Hammond is a British sport shooter, who has competed for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the Olympics. He is currently the head coach of the rifle team at the West Virginia University.
The Men's 10 metre air rifle event at the 2012 Olympic Games took place on 30 July 2012 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
The GoSports Foundation (GSF) is an independent, donor-funded non-profit venture, working towards securing funds and professional expertise for some of India's junior Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Established in 2008, it has worked with numerous athletes from across multiple Olympic and Paralympic disciplines through its scholarship programs.
India competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympics since 1920, although they made their official debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Rakesh Manpat is an Indian shooter from Bangalore. He completed his education from Jain University where he was in the junior division of NCC. In 2006, at 16, he became a Junior state champion, winning all gold medals. Rakesh Manpat was ranked third behind Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra at the Common Wealth Games Trials 2010.
Sunny Thomas is a former Indian national shooting champion in the rifle open sight event from Kerala, India. He was the coach of Indian shooting team for 19 years from 1993 to 2012. India won 108 gold, 74 silver and 53 bronze medals from various tournaments including the World Championships, Olympics and the Asian Games during his stint. He received the Dronacharya Award in 2001.
