Manu Bhaker to be India's flag-bearer for Paris Olympics closing ceremony

Paris, Aug 05: India's two-time Olympic medalist and star shooter Manu Bhaker will be the flag bearer for the country at the closing ceremony of the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) issued a statement confirming the development on Monday. The choice of the male flag-bearer will be made later.

"IOA President Dr PT Usha and Chef de Mission Gagan Narang are happy to announce that pistol shooter Manu Bhaker will be a flag bearer at the closing ceremony. The choice of the male flag bearer will be made at a later stage," the statement from IOA said.

Also, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) posted a video of her reacting to being chosen as a flag-bearer.

"UNBRIDLED JOY! @realmanubhaker finds out she has been chosen to be a flag-bearer at the closing ceremony of the #Paris2024Olympics. #Cheer4Bharat," SAI Media said in the post.

Bhaker brought her A-game in Paris and broke numerous accolades to claim two bronze medals in the Summer Games. The Paris Olympics has been a redemption for the 22-year-old shooter. During the 10m air pistol qualification round in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, her gun malfunctioned, which led to a loss of time.

She was left with a very short amount of time to carry out her quota of shots. She missed the top-eight finish required to qualify for the final round and finished in the 12th spot.

Bhaker opened India's medal tally in the ongoing Olympics after she secured third place in the women's individual 10m Air pistol event, becoming the first-ever woman shooter to win an Olympic medal for India. Following that, Sarabjot Singh and Bhaker won the Bronze medal in the 10m air pistol (mixed team) event, which was India's first-ever shooting team medal. She had a shot at returning with three medals from Paris. But in her final event, she narrowly missed out on the historic grand treble and finished fourth in the women's 25m pistol shooting event. She missed out on the opportunity to become the first Indian to win three medals at the Olympics.

Bhaker is the first athlete from the Indian contingent after independence to get two medals in a single edition of the Paris Olympics. Earlier in the 1900 Olympics, Norman Pritchard won two medals while representing India, both silver in the 200m and 200m hurdles.

Bhaker also joined an elite group of athletes to have multiple individual medals at the Olympics: PV Sindhu (badminton silver at Rio 2016 and bronze medal at Tokyo 2020) and Sushil Kumar (wrestling bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics).