India sharp shooter Swapnil Kusale in his maiden Olympics appearance, added another Bronze medal for India, in the Men's 50m Rifle Three Positions (50m 3P) event  at Paris 2024 Olympics on Thursday 1 August, 2024. The Central Railway employee registered 451.4 points, behind Ukraine’s Silver Medallist Serhiy Kulish (461.3) and Gold Medallist Liu Yukun  (463.6) from China after languishing near the bottom for the majority of the event.

Trailing in the Kneeling (placed sixth at 153.3) and Prone (fifth with a total of 310.1) rounds, Swapnil however made amends in the Standing position, touted as one of the most unstable of all three positions. It was here he flourished to deliver a top class performance under pressure and at one stage was even in second place, before a series of low scores of 9.1 and a 10.1 pushed him to fourth. Thereafter the CR Ticket Checker responded with a 10.3 and a 10.5 to claw back into the third position.  

In the process the Deepali Deshpande coached Swapnil became the very first Indian to clinch a medal in the 50m rifle three positions event and the sixth male shooter from India to win an Olympic medal.  It was India’s third medal in Rifle shooting after Abhinav Bindra’s Gold in Men’s 10m Air Rifle at Beijing 2008 and Gagan Narang's Bronze in the same event at London 2012.

He also joined the illustrious list of Indian sensational shooter Manu Bhaker whose stunning performance in her second Olympics, saw her clinched the Women’s 10m Air Pistol and Mixed Team 10m Air Pistol Bronze medals alongside another Olympic debutant Sarabjot Singh earlier this week at the at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

Swapnil earlier had made it to the eight-man final, a day earlier by finishing seventh in the qualifiers with a total of 590. Fellow Indian shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar had missed the cut after finishing 11th. His calm and patient approach on day 6, put to shade those of his fellow Indian shooters Anjum Moudgil and Sift Kaur Samra who failed to qualify for the final of

the Women's 50m 3P event, after having finished 18th and 31st respectively at the Paris Olympics earlier on Thursday.