Chateauroux: Unknowingly, Manu Bhaker became the face of Indian shooting’s Tokyo Olympics debacle. That picture of her tearing up, the left palm behind her neck and frustration visible underneath the mask, after failing to qualify for the 10m air pistol final of the pandemic Games remained long-lasting. Picture imperfect.

But three years on at the Paris Olympics, there’s another defining image of Manu, which wipes away the memories of 2021.

Her eyes moist with joy, a grin from cheek-to-cheek and a glitzy medal wrapped around her neck as she stood on the podium after the 10m air pistol final on Sunday. Manu walked up to take the Tricolour from a group of fans in the stands, unfurled it next to a couple of Koreans, took a bite of the medal and clicked a selfie with the winners.

Now, it’s picture perfect.Of the bronze medallist in the women’s 10m air pistol event of this Olympics. Of the first Indian medal winner at these Games on the second day of competitions. Of the first ever woman shooter from the country to medal at sport’s most prestigious stage.

“I had dreamt about this, but being here standing with the medal around my neck, it feels surreal,” Manu told reporters in Chateauroux, about 300km from Paris where shooters are experiencing a Games of their own.

From the first shot of the final till the last on Sunday, Manu remained within the top three, signing off with the bronze and a score of 221.7. She was on the cusp of silver when Kim Yeji shot a spectacular 10.5 to jump ahead by 0.1 point and limit Manu to bronze. Koreans Yeji (241.3) and Oh Ye Jin (243.2, an Olympic record) took silver and gold respectively.

The sight of an Indian shooter on the Olympic podium is rare, the kind not seen entirely in Tokyo three years ago and at Rio in 2016. Manu’s is the first Indian medal in shooting since the 2012 London Games, where Vijay Kumar (silver) and Gagan Narang (bronze) brought home a couple. The 22-year-old from Haryana is the fifth shooter from the country to medal at the Games, and the first woman.

“I’m so grateful that I could break the chain and get this medal,” Manu said.

The chain was broken in more ways than one. Indian shooting had been weighed down for the two previous Olympics. Manu herself was a shadow of herself in the immediate aftermath of Tokyo. The wunderkind with the pistol in hand had turned woeful and weary. Results stagnated; confidence crashed. The post-Tokyo backlash made her realise public memory is short, having long forgotten her teen triumphs at the 2018 Youth Olympics and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

She yearned for all of it again. The joy she found in shooting, however, wasn’t much the same. Manu took a step back, paused, and hit reset. That meant going back to competing in the juniors, and reuniting with her long-time coach Jaspal Rana.

Manu approached these Games without a tunnel-visioned mind, taking online violin classes in the months leading up to it and just being herself as a person. It was a lesson learnt from Tokyo, when she went a bit too deep into her shell. That was cracked, and out came an Olympic medal.

“If I didn’t have that lesson in my life, maybe I wouldn’t be here today,” Manu said. “So I’m glad that at such a young age, in my first Olympics experience, I learnt the kind of things that people take years to learn.”

In three years, Manu went from dejection to redemption. That was the hope Indian shooting carried into these Games, and Manu’s medal has infused that feeling again around the contingent in Chateauroux. Rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan, who minutes ago had narrowly missed out on qualifying for the women’s 10m air rifle final and sat expressionless on her chair, couldn’t stop smiling from the stands later watching Manu grinning away. Fellow shooters and officials walked around with words of optimism of this being the start.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Manu Bhaker and congratulated her on her medal win too — a gesture she greatly appreciated.

But she’s not done yet.

Manu is competing in two more events here — the 10m air pistol mixed team on Monday and the individual 25m pistol. “I have many more matches to shoot,” she said.

And perhaps more images to create.

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