Paris Olympic medallsist Swapnil Kusale is a quiet person; his coach Deepali Deshpande says he doesn't talk a lot and it's often hard to know what's going on his head. Paradoxically, though, he can be an impatient shooter, something that has cost him in the recent past, especially that utterly heartbreaking fourth-place at the 2023 Asian Games.
But in the biggest match of his career, Kusale (28) stayed calm and patient, winning an Olympic bronze in men's rifle 3 positions and making history for Indian shooting. This was India's first medal in shooting's long-form event, and the third at Paris 2024, making it numerically the best shooting haul at a single Games for India.
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The medal came the hard way; Kusale climbed from sixth (after the kneeling stage) to fifth after the prone stage, putting himself in medal contention during the standing, the most unstable of all three positions. At one point, he was in second place before a poor series of a 9.1 and a 10.1 pushed him to fourth. He responded with a 10.3 and a 10.5 to get back and then maintained that spot.
All the while, his calmness stood him in good stead. "To be honest, I did not see the scoreboard," he told PTI after the event. "It was my years of hard work, that is what I kept in mind while shooting. I was listening to the scores being announced but was ignoring it. I just wanted the Indian supporters to keep cheering for me."
"The heartbeat was on the higher side. I just tried to control my breathing and did not try anything different. Everyone is more or less the same at this level," he added.
His career has been similarly steady, unlike India's teen prodigies who set the junior stage on fire.
Son of a district schoolteacher (father), his mother sarpanch of a village near Kolhapur in Maharashtra, he started shooting at age 14 via a Maharashtra government scheme called "Krida Prabhodini" and went on to pick the longer format because he enjoyed it more. The family didn't initially have the finances for the expensive rifle and ammunition but his job as a ticket collector with the Railways helped.
His is the most demanding of shooting events, where one competes in kneeling, prone and standing position. By virtue of its rigours, it's a discipline that requires patience. But it took Kusale some time to learn it.
"Maybe I was not as strong mentally," Kusale said today when asked about his slow rise through the system. "My coaches and support staff gave me a lot of emotional support."
"He was kind of a person who, once on the track, he would just go on. So the main thing for me [as coach] was that he needed to learn to shoot with his patience," Desphande, one of India's rifle shooting pioneers, told ESPN after the Olympic Selection Trials earlier this year.
"He will just catch his pace, and he will just go on. Even if anything is going wrong, he will not stop. That was causing a little bit of a problem."
This tendency is what saw him lose agonisingly at the Asiad, where he was in gold position before one shot of 7.6 saw him drop out of medal contention. He had finished fourth at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo too, where he had sealed the Olympic quota for India.
These are the kind of moments that can make or break an athlete. Kusale, to his credit, grew stronger. This was evident at the four-stage Olympic Selection Trials where he was competing in one of the toughest categories with Aishwary Tomar (who won silver at that Asian Games) and Akhil Sheoran, who had won the other quota for India.
"At the trials I saw he was very patient. He was watching the situation and shooting accordingly. So that growth and maturity is there and it will help him," Deshpande said.
Kusale's medal also reiterates India's steady rise in the rifle 3P category, which has been a positive trend lately. And the rigorous four-stage OST, which was a pressure cauldron that has now shown results.
He's also had a personal growth arc as per his coach. "Shooting toh chalta rehta hain (the shooting will continue), but I am so glad that he grown so much as an individual also." It's also perhaps reflected in his most relatable statement after the medal. Asked how he would celebrate, he laughed saying he would eat something because he was hungry. The butterflies in the stomach will now settle, and may give rise to an even bigger hunger. After all, 28 is not too old in shooting.