What was India’s historic 21-member shooting contingent of the 2024 Paris Olympics doing five years ago?
They were on divergent paths. Shooters like Manu Bhaker and Elavenil Valarivan were diligently preparing for Tokyo, while emerging talents such as Esha Singh and Raiza Dhillon were making their mark in junior categories.
And Maheshwari Chauhan – who had scripted history by becoming the first-ever female Indian skeet shooter to win an individual international medal – was preparing to walk away from the sport.
Once and for all.
The Decision To Pull the Plug
2017. Astana, Kazakhstan. The sixth Asian Shotgun Championships.
It was, in many ways, a watershed moment for the Indian shotgun fraternity. The nation won seven medals – the most by any country. Maheshwari won a bronze in women’s individual skeet, becoming the first Indian to have achieved the feat.
Buoyed by her success, Maheshwari arrived at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane with high hopes. Tragically, she missed qualifying for the final round by a single point, a disappointment that led her to step away from the sport.
During a conversation with The Quint, Maheshwari recalls:
Because I had already achieved success in the Asian Championships, I was confident about the Commonwealth Games. But I missed out on qualifying for the final round by just 1 point, and that affected me really badly. I took a step back and stopped shooting altogether in 2019. Then COVID struck a year later, so there wasn’t any outdoor shooting anyway. For three and a half years, I was out of the game.Maheshwari Chauhan
Why Maheshwari Eventually Decided Not To Pull the Plug
A bout with depression ensued.
I suffered from mental health issues. I was just 21, so pretty much immature and did not know how to react to setbacks. I did not have any professional to help me either.Maheshwari Chauhan
She would not have made a comeback, regained her mojo, and travelled to Paris for the 2024 Olympics, had it not been for her family.
After the Commonwealth Games, I lost joy in the sport. I was not having fun in shooting anymore, I was too concerned about the results. After COVID, my father and my husband encouraged me to return, just to get back the fun of shooting, not to win medals. I also got a professional team to help me. The first few competitions were not good, but I got my joy back. Eventually, with a lot of practice, the performances also started to get better. It’s very easy to win alone, but it’s not easy at all to make a comeback all alone. I wouldn’t have done it without my family and team.Maheshwari Chauhan
Growing up in a Family of Shooters
Hailing from Siana village in Rajasthan, Maheshwari's affinity for shooting was almost destined. Her grandfather, Ganpat Singh, father, Pradeep Singh, and brother, Daksheshwar Singh, were all avid shooters.
My family was drawn towards shooting as a hobby. My grandfather was a very passionate shooter. He used to regularly go to the range with my father and my brother, and at times, I also joined them. He never made it to the Indian team, but has competed at the national level. Shooting was his life. He loved it so much that he was shooting till the day before his death, literally! His love for the game rubbed off on me. When he died, I picked up the gun to see what it was all about, and if I could have any joy trying it. My father was also a trap shooter, while my brother was a skeet shooter.Maheshwari Chauhan
Having started shooting at the age of 16, Maheshwari was in the national team just after turning 18.
I started shooting in 2012, and because I was very competitive, it took me only two years to get into the nationals and be called for trials of the Indian team. I had a great opportunity to get into the team because back then, we did not have many women shooters in skeet. It was really exciting, I was just 18 and I had never thought that I would get to travel around the globe and represent my nation at such a young age!Maheshwari Chauhan
Fighting the Notions, Swimming Against the Tide
Despite the prevalence of notions suggesting shotgun shooting is not for girls, owing to the weight of the gun and its recoil, Maheshwari faced no such deterrents.
Because I grew up among shotguns and saw them since I was a kid, I was not familiar with the stereotype of shotgun shooting being a male-dominated sport. Things such as the weight of the gun or the recoil never bothered me. I always thought that I had a gun, and I needed to fire it. As simple as that.Maheshwari Chauhan
Reflecting on her initial ease of entry into the Indian team due to limited competition, Maheshwari acknowledges the shifting landscape.
In India, we have had this notion that shotgun shooting is a man’s world. It is not for girls. Also, accessibility to shotgun shooting was not great for female shooters. These are the factors behind India not having a storied history in women’s shotgun shooting, but now, things are changing. There are so many shooters coming up who have great potential, and as a result, the level of competition in our domestic circuit has increased rapidly.Maheshwari Chauhan
She further elaborates:
The reason me and Raiza (Dhillon) are at the Olympics is because of the growing level of competition in domestic skeet events. We will be the first female Indian shooters to compete in skeet at the Olympics, and of course, we are quite proud of that. But the credit should not be given to only us. This is an achievement of the entire women’s skeet community in India. They paved the way for us to be at the Olympics.Maheshwari Chauhan
Challenges Faced by Shotgun Shooters in India
The umbrella term ‘shooting’ vaguely encompasses all of its sub-genres, albeit shotgun shooting is distinctively different from rifle and pistol shooting.
Shotgun also has a couple of divisions – trap and skeet. Whilst both involve a moving target, skeet features targets launched from two directions, as opposed to the unidirectional trap shooting. Hence, more challenging, and it remains the only discipline in shooting where India is yet to win an Olympic medal.
Elucidating the challenges faced by shotgun shooters in India, Maheshwari says:
Shooting is used as a wide term, but shotgun shooting is so different from rifle and pistol. Be it technique or activity, the two are so far apart, except that you have a gun and a target in both. It is like saying basketball and football are the same, because you have a ball in both. People assume the disciplines are similar, and this is why there is a lack of appreciation, because they see rifle and pistol shooters doing well, but shotgun shooters not as much. But I can assure you, 90% of our shotgun shooters who have achieved some success have had to invest their own blood, sweat, tears and money in their journey. Now I have all the support from the government and TOPS scheme, but it was not always this way in our sport.Maheshwari Chauhan
Financial requirements are also a major stumbling block.
Shotgun shooting neither has visibility, nor does it get any backing from anywhere until you are successful. On top of that, it is a hugely expensive sport which requires constant investment. The guns, ammunition, clay targets, everything has to be exported. We don’t have many shotgun coaches in India either, so you have to hire a European coach who is guaranteed to cost you a bomb. I did not have any support from any corporate until I won my quota. I am just fortunate that I came from a privileged background, who could sustain my dreams. We don’t have as many ranges here to practice either, so I am staying in Italy for the majority of the year.Maheshwari Chauhan
The Paris Dream
Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon will constitute India’s first female representation in skeet at the Olympics. That, in itself, will be historic, but it can be elevated with a medal.
That is exactly what Maheshwari is determined to achieve, as she concludes:
We want to try our best to perform well. It will be great if we can win a medal in skeet, not just for us or the country’s medal tally, but also for our event. I am very fortunate that I will be participating in two events, but I don’t want to participate just for the sake of it. I want to aim for the medals.Maheshwari Chauhan
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