How Manu Bhaker found her groove—and Haryana became a crucible for women athletes
There is more than just one redemption story in Paris. Not just the utterly spell-binding Simone Biles but our very own Manu Bhaker.
It seemed fitting that India’s first medal in Paris was won by a woman. It seemed fitting too that the second medal in Paris was also won by a woman. Of course, it seemed entirely fitting that both were picked up by the same woman: Manu Bhaker, the first athlete in independent India to win two medals in a single Olympics.
(In 1900, Norman Pritchard won two silvers for 200m sprint and 200m hurdles.)
Manu’s double bronze haul, in the 10m women’s Air Pistol women’s event and in the 10m Air Pistol mixed event with Sarabjot Singh, is being hailed as a redemption journey, a reference to her Tokyo debut where she and her malfunctioning pistol became the image of India’s failure—and the target of relentless trolls.
When she arrived in Tokyo, Manu, then 19, was a rising star, the One-to-Watch. She had set a record in the 10m Air Pistol final, beating Olympian Heena Sidhu at the 2017 National Shooting Championships, just a year into her shooting journey. In 2019, she took another gold in the mixed team event at the International Shooting Sport Federation Cup in Delhi, finished fourth at Munich and won her place in Tokyo. Then, heartbreak followed.
Tempted as she says she was to quit, Manu persisted. “She dug deep and continued shooting,” writes Zenia D’Cunha in ESPNIndia. Sharing her journey on social media, picking up hobbies, violin and dancing. And making her voice heard when it mattered—when India’s women wrestlers were out on the streets protesting against their Federation head, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, points out D’Cunha.
But the key perhaps was her decision to reconnect with her former coach from her junior days, Jaspal Rana.
The journey had begun: Junior world champion at the 2020 Summer Games, Lima; silver at the 25m pistol at the 2022 World Championship in Cairo; gold at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
The comeback kid was back. On Saturday, Manu took aim for her third medal. After an initial tie for third place with former world record holder Veronika Major of Hungary, she dropped two points, coming in fourth.
The disappointment was clearly visible on her face. That didn’t stop Indian fans from cheering.
In the blood
By the time, Manu was born in 2002 in Goria village, in district Jhajjar, Haryana was already a hub for women’s sport.
Former national-level volleyball player Kanta Singh, deputy country representative, UN Women, remembers growing up in Khidoli Pehladpur village, Sonepat, where the girls in her school played volleyball. “Our village was very open to the idea of girls playing sport,” she says.
Volleyball didn’t require a big investment in terms of gear. All you needed was a net, a ball and the girls to play. And so they did.
Inspiration came early and by the time she was 13, Singh was playing at the district level. “I remember this PT instructor from another school, Shakuntala who would organise district level sports meets for girls,” Singh continues. “We had never seen a woman in trousers and Shakuntala in her white trousers and white t-shirt made a huge impression on us. She was an absolute star.”
As she advanced in her sport, volleyball took Singh all over the country. It helped, she says, that the secretary of the Haryana Volleyball Association at the time, Master Ram Singh, a man short on cash but high on enthusiasm, took the team everywhere, from camps at the sports school in Rai to tournaments in Kerala.
“We slept on railway platforms and in modest arrangements in schools and colleges but the exposure was priceless. It also helped me and other national-level players get free quality education, scholarships and access to world-class infrastructure at the Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. I certainly wouldn’t have reached where I am in my professional life if it wasn’t for sport,” says Singh.
Haryana has had a long tradition of producing athletes, points out Kuldeep Malik, a former national women’s wrestling coach who in 2023 set up a girls’ wrestling academy in Sonepat. “Our natural physique is tagda, strong and and it makes us good in sport.” It’s also why Haryana with 2% of India’s population sends 11% to the army.
Growing up, Kuldeep remembers that no festival in the village was complete without some kushti (wrestling) or kabaddi. The women played but began participating competitively once the medals—and with them cash and fame—began trickling in. When Geeta Phogat won gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, there was no looking back.
Over the years, clusters of excellence have come up for wrestling, hockey, judo, boxing. These are now the breeding ground for India’s elite athletes. Of the 117 in Paris, Haryana has the largest representation with 24, or 20%, followed by Punjab at 19.
The new focus is on the girls. According to Malik, the state has anywhere between 15 and 20 privately-run wrestling academies just for girls. His own Kuldeep Malik Sports Academy has at present 65 girls and women in ages from 11 to 25 and states from Punjab to Maharashtra.
Parents, he said, used to hesitate to send their daughters to come and live away from home. “Our society places a lot of restrictions on the movement of girls,” he says. “But now parents see the benefit of sports and how it can help their girls advance.”
The Haryana paradox
In a state that does poorly on several gender indices, including sex ratio at birth, where the ghoongat, or veil, is still in place and where rigid social norms determine who women can or cannot marry, the freedom for girls and women to play contact sport is astonishing.
“Sport in Haryana is highly incentivized,” says Jagmati Sangwan of AIDWA (All India Democratic Women’s Association) who is a former international volleyball player and was on the national team for three years starting in 1980. “When jobs are scarce, then tradition and restrictions fall away. The same father who wouldn’t send his daughter out of the house, now sends her off to training camp in the hope that she will do well and get a good job.”
Haryana has the highest cash award for medals, starting at ₹6 crore for an Olympic gold. But it’s not just the money. The state has a robust sports policy that includes the building of world-class infrastructure including a sports school in Rai and stadium in practically every district.
In 2024, the state government announced plans to enhance sports infrastructure at the village level along with the setting up of specialised centres for specific sports for all athletes.
Akharas and playing fields have sprung up literally in every village and school ground.
Often it takes just one woman to get the ball rolling, says Manisha Malhotra who looks out for talented athletes for private conglomerate JSW to enrol at its 42-acre Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) in Bellary, Karnataka. The highly visible success of the Phogat sisters and Sakshi Malik has fired countless dreams. Next year IIS plans to have twice as many women athletes on board, says Malhotra.
Nobody is benefitting as much as the women themselves. “Sport gives women exposure and this builds their confidence,” says Jagmati Sangwan. “They can deal with any situation. This is why India’s leading women wrestlers could take the Wrestling Federation of India head on. They become unstoppable.”
The following article is an excerpt from this week's HT Mind the Gap. Subscribe here.