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Paris Olympics 2024: Swapnil Kusale Becomes The 2nd Most Famous Railway TTE In The World After MS Dhoni

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India.com 

Maharashtra shooter Swapnil Kusale has etched his name in Indian sporting history becoming the first Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal in 3 Position Rifle event at the Paris Olympics 2024. Kusale, who is a Central Railways TTE by profession, incidentally becomes the 2nd most famous TTE in the world and India after the former India cricket captain MS Dhoni – who started off his career as a ticket checker as well. 

From the age of just 10 years, Swapnil has been staying in government residential school and training in Pune apart from working as a TTE in Central Railways. Swapnil has spent most of his life away from family’s village near Kolhapur. The village is famous for being drug and alcohol free as well as for organic farming. It was his move to Central Railways, where he joined as a ticket collector, which finally helped him secure a rifle for himself in 2015.

“He saved his first six months salary to get his first rifle which cost him more than Rs 3 lakh,” Swapnil Kusale’s father Suresh Kusale was quoted as saying by Indian Express newspaper.

Kusale put behind him the heartbreaks of shooting World Championshipsand Asian Games 2022 to become the 7th Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal and secured India’s third bronze medal in Paris. Kusale had almost secured a medal at the shooting World Championships 2022 but hit an 8.2 which saw him finish in 4th position. However, even the 4th place finish was enough to secure a 3P Rifle quota berth for the Paris Olympics 2024. 

In the same year at the Asian Games 2022 final, Kusale once again had the medal in his sights but hit a shocking 7.6 which saw him drop out of medal contention. On Thursday, Kusale clinched the bronze medal for India in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions final after finishing in third place with an aggregate of 451.4.

The 29-year-old has come a long way since making his mark in 2015 when he beat the likes of 2012 London Olympics medallist Gagan Narang and Chain Singh to clinch his first senior national title. After the disappoint of Asian Games, at the Baku World Cup in 2022, he won silver in the 50m rifle 3 positions for his firs-ever individual ISSF World Cup medal. 

Kusale comes from a family with an agricultural background. In 2009, his father enrolled him into Maharashtra government’s primary programme dedicated to sports – the  Krida Prabhodini. After one year of hardcore physical training, he had to choose one sport and he picked shooting.   

In 2015, he won gold in 50m rifle prone 3 in the junior category in 2015 Asian Shooting Championships in Kuwait. He also won the 59th National Shooting Championship held in Tughlakabad ahead of Gagan Narang and Chain Singh in the 50m rifle prone event. He repeated the same performance in 61st National Championship in Thiruvananthapuram by winning a gold in 50m rifle 3 position. 

Swapnil’s mother told news agency PTI that the family hails from a village in Kolhapur district of western Maharashtra. “He studied in a public school and developed a liking for shooting while at Sangli. He later went to Nashik for further training in the sport,” she added. 

The parents of Olympic shooting bronze medalist Swapnil Kusale on Thursday said they were sure he would win a medal for the ‘tricolour and the country’. “We let him focus on his work and didn’t even call him yesterday so that he should not get distracted,” Swapnil’s father Suresh Kusale told reporters in Kolhapur. 

“For the last 10 to 12 years, he was mostly away from home, focusing on his marksmanship. People have been calling up incessantly to congratulate us,” Suresh Kusale added.