Title : Swapnil Kusale — A Village Boy Who Shot to Fame
Summary : Swapnil Kusale, born on 6th August 1995 in an agricultural family at Kambalwadi in Kolhapur district, rose to become an international shooter. His father, Suresh, a village school teacher, spotted his talent in 2009 and enrolled him in Krida Prabodhini, the Maharashtra Government’s sports programme. After a year of hard training he chose shooting and won a junior gold in the 50 m rifle prone event at the 2015 Asian Championship in Kuwait, and later gold at the 59th and 61st National Championships. A ticket examiner with the Central Railways since 2015, he received the Shiv Chhatrapati State Sports Award in 2016-17, won team gold at the 2021 ISSF World Cup and a bronze at the 2022 World Championship in Cairo, and earned a quota for the Paris 2024 Olympics.