India’s two-time Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker is set to be India’s flagbearer in the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) sources stated that Bhaker will be India’s women’s flagbearer in the closing ceremony. India’s men’s flagbearer for the ceremony is yet to be confirmed. The closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics will take place on August 11.
Bhaker brought her A-game in Paris and broke numerous accolades to claim two bronze medals in the Summer Games. The Paris Olympics has been a redemption for the 22-year-old shooter. During the 10m air pistol qualification round in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, her gun malfunctioned, which led to a loss of time. She was left with a very short amount of time to carry out her quota of shots. She missed the top-eight finish required to qualify for the final round and finished in the 12th spot.
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Bhaker opened India’s medal tally in the ongoing Olympics after she secured third place in the women’s individual 10m air pistol event. Following that, Sarabjot Singh and Bhaker won the bronze medal in the 10m air pistol (mixed team) event. She had a shot at returning with three medals from Paris. But in her final event, she narrowly missed out on the historic grand treble and finished fourth in the women’s 25m pistol shooting event. She missed out on the opportunity to become the first Indian to win three medals at the Olympics.
Bhaker is the first athlete from the Indian contingent after independence to get two medals in a single edition of the Paris Olympics. Earlier in the 1900 Olympics, Norman Pritchard won two medals while representing India, both silver in the 200m and 200m hurdles. Bhaker also joined an elite group of athletes to have multiple individual medals at the Olympics: PV Sindhu (badminton silver at Rio 2016 and bronze medal at Tokyo 2020) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics).
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