An athlete’s journey is not without its share of injury travails and there was a phase in Paris Olympic medallist Sarabjot Singh’s career when he was not able to lift his pistol even once, let alone repeat the exercise 60 times in competition. Careful planning and rehabilitation, however, saw him emerge from the career-threatening injury, which occurred in March last year, to become the joint bronze-medallist with Manu Bhaker in mixed team 10m air pistol event at the quadrennial showpiece.

As he touched down to a rapturous welcome in Delhi on Thursday afternoon, he seemed to have found a new motivation to aim higher, but in between the 22-year-old and his coach Abhishek Rana gave a glimpse of the phase when he was miles away from clinching even an Olympic quota place, let alone appear in the national trials and finally shoot down the mixed team bronze along with Manu in Paris.

“I am happy that the days of uncertainty are behind me. Just after the Bhopal World Cup in March last year, I developed a serious shoulder problem in my shooting arm, where I could not lift my arm to take even a single shot, leave aside a 60-shot qualification,” said Sarabjot in an interaction with PTI on the sidelines of a function to felicitate him by Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

“There was a phase when after five shots I used to sit down for a while with an ice-pack to relieve the pain and stiffness. Later it became so intense that I could not even lift the pistol to the height of the target,” he added.

Sarabjot developed an impingement injury due to his shoulder blade rubbing against his collarbone, causing extreme discomfort and pain.

A shoulder impingement is caused by the constant rubbing of the bones, resulting in swelling, which causes pain and irritation. Several pistol shooters suffer from the impingement syndrome.

“I could not compete in the World University Games, left the Olympic Games camp in Chateauroux and I had to take heavy doses of steroids before the Asian Games to relieve the pain as PRP (platelet-rich plasma therapy) would have taken a lot more time,” said Sarabjot.

PRP is a non-invasive medical procedure that makes use of a patient’s blood to encourage the repair and regeneration of injured tissue.

“I won two medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games — men’s team gold and mixed team silver. Then I won the Olympic Games quota at the Asian Championships in Changwon, South Korea.

“Gradually due to regular physiotherapy, the pain started subsiding and I could get back to my normal shooting routine,” he said, adding he didn’t go to Paris with any expectations but with loads of “motivation and dedication”.

“It (injury) happened over a period of time as we do only exercises specific to holding the pistol steady, which weakens the other muscles. But the symptoms aggravated all of a sudden,” said Sarabjot, who had missed an individual bronze at the Games and finished fourth.

Shedding light on the injury his coach Abhishek Rana, who has been with Sarabjot since 2016, said, at one point in time, there was a feeling of the Olympic dream going up in smoke.

“You prepare a shooter with so much dedication and then this injury happens. You are helpless and don’t know what to do. Sarabjot was advised complete rest for his shoulder for three months,” said Rana.

“That was the time we started focusing on his mental training. Those three months were completely dedicated to that. And after that, gradually, he started getting back to training.

“Five shots and after that a long break, then 10 shots followed by another break and so on, to bring him up to speed,” said Rana, who had accompanied Sarabjot to Paris.

The shooter from a village in Ambala added that he could have aimed for a silver and possibly a gold medal in the mixed team air pistol but he was “completely clueless how he made those poor shots”.

“I will work on the deficiencies next time and not repeat the same mistakes again.” Sarabjot added that the day he missed the men’s 10m air pistol medal, he became more determined to give it his best shot in mixed team.

With just a day in between to turn around things he put in several hours on dry holding the pistol for more stability of the arm.

“After I completed my 10m air pistol match in the morning, I returned to the venue again in the evening to do dry holding for 3-4 hours. The inspiration was there that after losing one medal I won’t let the second one too slip by,” he added.

“Please give me something to eat,” Olympic bronze medal winning shooter Sarabjot Singh said on his arrival at India House — a repository showing the soft power of the country that aspires to host the 2036 Olympic Games. Singh and Manu Bhaker combined to beat South Korea 16-10 in the 10 meter air pistol mixed team event to land India its second medal at the Olympics on Tuesday. The 22-year-old, soon after his podium finish, drove to India House – a hospitality house that showcases Indian architecture and artistic motifs, offers virtual reality tourism, yoga sessions, Bollywood dance classes and workshops on henna tattooing and block printing. It also serves the best of Indian cuisines — from biryani and mutton curry to curd rice and a host of desserts.

He arrived to a rousing welcome by fans and Nita Ambani, chairperson of Reliance Foundation, which set up the pavilion in partnership with the Indian Olympic Association.

Amid photo-ops and selfie moments, he was asked what he wanted and pat came the reply, “Please give me something to eat,” a source privy to the conversation said.

And within minutes, popular Indian snacks including paani puri, bhel and dosa were served to the whole contingent at the special lounge for athletes at the India House.

For athletes perhaps tired of eating croissants and baguettes and the other limited food options at the Olympic village where rooms have no air conditioning (Paris Games organisers decided to do away with ACs to cut carbon footprint), food from home is what they crave for. India House offered just that.

Chefs from London’s Stoke Park — a 7-star property owned by the Ambanis — as well as from India run a kitchen that serves a variety of cuisines.

After the meal, the contingent danced to ‘nattu-nattu’.

Another source said India House is an opportunity for Nita Ambani, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, to showcase to the world what the country has to offer.

Morning yoga sessions are jam packed and city authorities have placed restrictions on no more than a 1000 persons being present at any given point of time.

Lot of French and non-Indians take the yoga lessons as well as the Bollywood dance classes, a third source said.

“Hosting the IOC Session in India last year, the first in 40 years, was a milestone in our Olympic journey. We are delighted to continue this momentum with the launch of India House – a place where we will honour our athletes, celebrate our victories, share our stories and welcome the world to experience India,” Nita Ambani, wife of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, had said at the inauguration of India House last week.

Nestled in the middle of plush surroundings of the Parc de la Villette, some 9km from the Olympic Games village, India House is one of the 18 country hospitality lounges that have come up at the Games.

“We want to show the whole world that we are capable of being up to the task of such an event,” she had said. 

India men’s hockey team in action© X (Twitter)

Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh celebrating their Olympics bronze.© AFP

Sarabjot Singh and Manu Bhaker won India bronze medal© AFP

Pistol shooter Sarabjot Singh has experienced the extreme highs and lows of elite sport in his maiden Olympics. Inconsolable after a narrow miss in the individual 10m air pistol event, Sarabjot raised his game to match his more accomplished team-mate Manu Bhaker and secure a second shooting medal for India at the Paris Games. After the heartbreak of last week, when the 22-year-old from Dheen village near Ambala missed the men’s 10m air pistol final by the smallest of margins, an inner 10 to be specific, his whole shooting journey that began in 2016 flashed before his eyes.

Sitting in despair at the qualification range, Sarabjot thought about his 35km-long daily bus ride to coach Abhishek Rana’s academy in Ambala, the immeasurable sacrifice of his father who could just provide for his family with his limited farming income and also his US-based grandfather, who made sure that his grandson never had to compromise on expensive shooting equipment.

“All I could think after that final was what my father did for me his entire life, the support of my grandfather in the US and all the lonely journeys that I took on the bus to Ambala during the first two years of my career. Having got a medal now, I hope to make my parents lives better,” said Sarabjot.

Having made history moments earlier, he could also afford a smile and looked back at his early days with amusement.

“I got bored after two years in the bus. Third year onwards I used to ride with a friend name Chetan. In 2021, I got a car to go to the range (laughs),” said Sarabjot, who also has multiple medals to his name in world events.

Considering his state of mind on the opening day of the competition, it was remarkable that Sarabjot was able to turn it around and match Manu shot for shot in the 10m air pistol mixed team bronze medal play-off against South Korea here on Tuesday.

Not to take anything away from Sarabjot and Manu’s memorable performance under pressure, the underwhelming show of Paris 2024 individual gold medallist and Olympic record holder Oh Ye Jin allowed the breathing space the Indians needed when put under pressure by the Koreans.

Sarabjot felt the nerves at the start and shot an 8.6 but found consistency in the second half of the play-off to complement Manu, who managed three sub-10 shots compared to her team-mate’s four.

“There was no pressure. I slept at 9.30 yesterday and got up at 5.30. But when I got here at the range, I felt a bit of nerves as there was hype around it,” said Sarabjot, a Khelo India athlete since 2019 who has participated in four Khelo India Games and is a Target Olympic Podium Scheme athlete.

How did he manage to get over the disappointment of the individual event? “My family motivated me. I spoke to the coaches and tried to analyse what went wrong. The talk with the coach was mainly technical,” said Sarabjot.

A significant credit of Sarabjot’s success should also go to his friend and fellow shooter Adiya Malra, who trains with him at Rana’s academy in Ambala.

“Both Sarabjot and Adiya came to me around the same time in 2016. They share a great bond and believe they don’t need to train with anyone else to prepare for any event.

“Aditya was not part of the Olympic selection trials but he was there with Sarabjot to provide him moral support. I wish he was with us here as well,” said an emotional Rana at the shooting range after the medal was confirmed.

Rana felt Sarabjot was not at his best on Tuesday but his execution was significantly better than the individual event.

“He was able to execute better today. He is still not happy with the scores and that was reflecting on his face. He will be going for an individual gold in the next Olympics. That is our main target heading now,” said the coach.

Rana also recalled a pivotal moment in Sarabjot’s career.

“His uncle brought him to me in 2016 and he started training on the very first day. Next year he got a bronze at the nationals, that was the moment his vision changed forever,” said Rana, who can also churn home cooked meals for Sarabjot when he is training back home.

Without an accreditation here, Rana was buying daily tickets to be with his protégé at the range.

Heading back to India on Wednesday, Sarabjot did not leave the range without giving credit to institutions that looked after him.

“The biggest contribution I would say is from TOPS, OGQ and Khelo India. They provided all the equipment and facilities that I needed.”

PV Sindhu and Sarabjot Singh in mixed team 10m air pistol final© AFP

Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh won historic bronze medal in mixed team event© AFP

Paris Olympics Game 2024 LIVE Updates© X (Twitter)

India’s Schedule, Medal Events At Paris Olympics 2024 Day 4: Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh© Twitter