Key chain to ward off evil, coach Deepali behind Swapnil's Olympic glory

Shooter Swapnil Kusale isnt really superstitious but when fellow mates Akhil Sheoran and Shriyanka Sadangi gifted him a small key chain to ward off evil eye he readily accepted it before boarding the flight to Paris for the OlympicsSwapnil has found himself being defeated by fate in several topnotch competitions including the Asian Games in 2023 and the 2022 World Championships in Cairo where just one shot and a few decimal points pushed him to fourth placeBut in the Paris Olympics 2024 the 29yearold set the record straight becoming the first Indian ever to win a bronze medal in 50m rifle 3positions event at the OlympicsWhile Akhil and Shriyanka both 50m rifle 3positions shooters had secured Olympic quota places for the country they could not make the cut for the Paris Olympics 2024 following the Olympic Selection Trials conducted by the National Rifle Association of IndiaJust before I was to travel to Paris My best friends Akhil and Shriyanka came to meet me and gifted a key chain to guard me against the evil eye They said bhai jeet ke aana hai return a winner That and the learnings imparted by personal coach Deepali Deshpande and elder sister Tejaswini Sawant says Swapnil played a huge role in his Olympic successThe three of us me Akhil and Shriyanka have been together for years and they take care of me whenever I am in Delhi We share a very strong bond Akhil is like my brother and Shriyanka my sister We are a family whenever we are in camp or competition so many years we have spent together since our junior days Swapnil told PTI on SaturdayAlso ReadAvani Lekhara opens up on how she developed her interest in shootingSwapnil who hails from Kolhapur in Maharashtra says that its the hard work put in by former international rifle shooter Deepali that has helped him achieve success in his maiden OlympicsDeepali maam is like my second mother She has seen me shoot since 2012 She knows what I require when I tend to get emotional or what makes me feel sad what makes me happy So that motherson relationship goes back to my early days of shooting She has intricately gone into every aspect of my shooting says Swapnil who missed a medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year only because of just one rank bad shotWhen in Pune he prefers to train with another shooting stalwart and former world champion in 50m rifle prone TejaswiniTeju di Tejaswini is like my elder sister She is an Olympian and a very experienced shooter Both of us belong to Kolhapur so we train together in Pune If I commit an error in shooting she corrects it immediately says the TTE with Indian railwaysJourney has just started Swapnil says the bronze medal is just a stepping stone in his quest to win an Olympic goldMy dream is not yet complete It is to win a gold medal at the Olympics That is my goal The medal that I won in Paris is normal for me and one stage near to my dream if I can put it that way he saysAsian Games fourth place left me traumatised Swapnil added that one bad shot of 76 which cost him a medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games had left him disturbed but the intervention of his mental trainer put him back on trackDuring the Asian Games when I finished fourth I was in trauma But my psychologist handled it very well and prepared me on how to ignore the Hangzhou debacleHe asked me not to think about that poor score and just focus on the shots that were really good visualise them how did you do that So once I started doing that I started getting better scores in the finals He told me If there is a poor shot just erase it from your memory and concentrate on the remaining shotsThe MS Dhoni factor Being a TTE with the Railways Swapnil relates himself more with cricket legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni than shooting greats like Abhinav Bindra and Rajyavardhan Singh RathoreIts not like have not learnt a lot from big shooters like Abhinav Bindra Gagan Narang and RVS RathoreI relate to Dhoni more because he was a ticket collector in the Railways and I am also a TC We all have seen the movie MS Dhoni The Untold Story where he wanted to realise his dream of becoming a cricketer and followed his instincts I have a similar mindsetAnother thing which really stands out in Dhoni is his calm temperament He never gets flustered whatever be the situation These are the same things we require in shooting One bad shot and we get rattled So we dont have to do that but remain calm That is the most important thing Those are the things I learnt from Dhoni he addedWith agency inputs