Who is Maheshwari Chauhan? All you need to know about the Indian skeet shooter who finished fourth in mixed team event at Paris Olympics 2024
Maheshwari Chauhan is an Indian skeet shooter who made her Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics 2024. She is the first Indian woman to win an individual medal in women's skeet shooting at an international level.
Chauhan initially started shooting for fun with her family members at their range in Siana, Rajasthan. Later on, her interest increased in shooting, and took it as her career. She is supported by an NGO Olympic Gold Quest.
Maheshwari Chauhan's career peaked when she won a bronze medal at the 7th Asian Championship Shotgun in Astana, Kazakhstan on August 11, 2017. With this feat, she became the first woman to win an individual medal in an international skeet competition.
She shot an impressive 68 out of 75 possible outcomes in the qualification round. In the final round, she faced top shooters including Olympic finalists and World Cup gold medalists. She shot a score of 40 while China's Meng Wei secured gold with a score of 55 in the final round.
Before that Chauhan also helped her teammates Rashmi Rathore and Saniya Sheikh to lead the Indian team to a silver medal in the tournament. They lost gold to China in a close fight. The trio shot a total of 190, finishing behind Gold medalists China, who shot 195. While Hosts Kazakhstan won the bronze shooting 185.
Maheshwari Chauhan was part of the 21-member shooting team sent to the Olympics, aiming to end a 12-year wait for a medal in the sport. Chauhan had performed exceptionally well in the Olympic qualification Championship, held in Doha, Qatar.
At the ISSF Final Olympic Shotgun Qualification Championship, Chauhan secured a silver medal, finishing second in the women's skeet event behind Francisca Crovetto Chadid of Chile. Both had scored 54, but Crovetto clinched the top spot after winning 4-3 in the shoot-off.
Maheshwari Chauhan finished fourth in the Skeet shooting mixed team final alongside Anantjeet Singh Naruka
Indian shooters Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Maheshwari Chauhan narrowly missed out on a bronze medal in the skeet mixed team event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, finishing fourth after a close match against China on Monday, August 5.
In the bronze medal match held at Chateauroux, Naruka and Chauhan were edged out by China’s Jiang Yiting and Lyu Jianlin with a score of 44-43.
Naruka initially missed two of his first eight shots but then successfully hit the remaining 16 targets. Chauhan, who began strongly by hitting all four targets in the first series, faltered in the subsequent rounds, missing shots in the second, third, and fourth series.
In the qualification rounds, Naruka and Chauhan posted a combined score of 146/150, finishing fourth. The Chinese team, which also scored 146/150, secured third place after a shoot-off.