"They left everything for my shooting" - Paris Olympics debutant Anish Bhanwala opens up on his parents' sacrifice to make him a shooter
There are usually two scenarios in an athlete's mind when they are heading towards a mega event - pressure or excitement. Anish Bhanwala, who will be debuting at the Paris Olympics 2024 in a few days is excited and is not ready to let pressure get the better of him.
With a calm and cool voice, and with a smile on his face, Bhanwala revealed to Sportskeeda his excitement in an exclusive interview:
"I am excited. Till now I am not feeling anything special. It’s just like another normal day of training. I hope it goes the same way till the Olympics. The competition day will of course be special and that’s the day I am preparing for."
Moreover, he is also a pretty practical person. Just prior to the main event, where athletes are trying to improvise on the aspects of their game, Anish Bhanwala is not doing so. Rather, he believes this is not the time to implement improvements.
"I have trained a lot like hundreds and thousands of hours. Considering the time left for the competition, there is no improvement which can be done at this point. The main task is to maintain the things, to finetune the technique a bit and stick to the basics," he said.
A gold medalist at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Bhanwala couldn't have made it so far, if he didn't receive the proper support from his family. The 21-year-old shares how his parents sacrificed their own social life to get the shooter this far.
"If I didn’t have the support from my family, it wouldn’t have been possible to come this far. There was no shooting range (in 2013) from where I belong. I used to go to a village for training which was 30-40 minutes away from my school. My parents provided me all the possible things, of course also the financial support, which is not easy for the family or anyone," he said.
"More importantly, they have traveled with me to every domestic competition since the last 10 years. Now we have left our home and shifted to Delhi. That was also a big step for them, to sacrifice their social life and their work. They left everything for my shooting. I am blessed to have such parents," he added.
Notably, Anish Bhanwala is also a student of Commonwealth Games gold medalist Harpreet Singh. Bhanwala, who treats Singh as his source of inspiration, revealed to Sportskeeda how they met, how they came together and how they started training.
"He won two gold medals in 2010 Commonwealth Games. His house is like 200m away from my school. While returning home from school, I saw his welcoming ceremony. That day I became aware of a shooter who lives near our place, who won a gold medal. In 2014, I saw him at the Nationals in Pune. In 2015, I used to go to school in the mornings and he used to exercise on the roads," Bhanwala recalled.
"One day I stopped and introduced myself. He was happy to see two young kids (Anish and his sister). One day he asked where I train. He visited our range as well. He was at the national team at that time. He saw what we do and explained the basics of shooting. We met him again after 2-3 months and he was happy to see our progress. We were following the things he had explained. Since then we are getting closer and he gave us more time. Eventually, when I went to the national team, he understood that I need him," he added.
Not only did Bhanwala's parents sacrifice a lot for their son, his coach Harpreet Singh, too, followed in the same footsteps. The shooter said:
"He left his police duty for me too and came to Delhi. He was like my idol. I have good basics (thanks to him), which not every shooter gets this opportunity to train with such a great shooter with such experience. We both trusted each other and till now it’s going fantastic."
What is Anish Bhanwala's plan for Paris Olympics?
Anish Bhanwala isn't really bothered about a medal. He is confident of himself and just wants to showcase his natural game and his best in front of the world. He concluded the interview by saying:
"I’ll tell you about my plan. I have been preparing for many years now. For Olympics, my plan is simple, that is do what I have planned and prepared. Medal is secondary like any other competition. Either I win or I learn. Here everybody expects us to win the medal. The only thing I can do is give my 100% and a little bit more. If I get the medal, of course it will mean a lot, not just to me but to all the athletes who are going to represent India at the Olympics."
As a debutant if Anish Bhanwala is able to salvage a medal at the upcoming Games, it will remain as an epitome of sacrifice and hard work, the bare requirements of a champion.