Journey to the Olympics with passion

It is every athlete's dream to play in the Olympics. 24-year-old Summita is in the process of fulfilling this dream of participating in the Mahakumbh of the World Games. The 33rd Summer Olympics is starting from July 26 in Paris, France.

Sushmita will compete in women's 10m air rifle. His competition will be held on July 28, following the opening of the Paris Olympics. Now he is making final preparations for the Olympics at the shooting range in Satdobato. He is training under the supervision of experienced shooting coach Pradeep Khati.

How is the Olympic preparation? Sushmita immediately replied, 'Good. I am focused on trying to give my best performance. That best is to go ahead and break the national record. She added, "My goal is to pass the preliminary stage in Paris." I hope that if I can score well, I can achieve that goal. Sushmita's confidence has increased due to the score she scored in

training. She says that now she is scoring between 623 and 628 in training. Players with a score of over 628 reached the finals at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. That stage means a trip to the top eight in the shootout. Nepal's Kalpana Pariyar scored 616.8 in Tokyo. She was 46th out of 50 competitors. Which was also his national record.

So far, none of the Nepali shooting athletes have reached the previous stage in the Olympics. However, Sushmita is determined to break that history. By the time of this Olympic journey, Sushmita has accumulated the experience of a dozen international competitions. There are two Asian Games, one South Asian Games and the Asian Championships.

She is an athlete who trained on an Olympic scholarship. The Nepal Olympic Committee, with the help of Olympic Solidarity, placed 10 athletes of various sports on scholarship after the Tokyo Olympics. For that, they received 750 USD per month. The aim of the scholarship is to facilitate the athletes to participate in the Olympic qualifying tournament and to train. It also helped Sushmita a lot from training to participating in competitions. Based on her performance in those qualifying events, she met the minimum score (IQS) required to qualify for the Olympics. So she is entitled to universality quota.

Badminton's Prince Dahal and Judo's Manita Shrestha Pradhan, who are on scholarship along with Sushmita, will also play in the Paris Olympics. Other athletes participating in Paris are Athletics' Santoshi Shrestha, Badminton's Santu Shrestha, Swimming's Alexander Shah and Duwana Lama.

Sushmita's shooting journey

Sushmita was born in Mandandeupur in Kave, but grew up and studied in Lalitpur Dholahiti. When she was studying in class 9 of Kantipuri Boarding. That was in 2016. Nepal Shooting Association started looking for students in schools to conduct inter-school shooting competition.

Sushmita is the player in that search. Till then he did not know how shooting games are played. When Sushmita was told that she could use a rifle, she also wanted to use it. The association had selected players from different schools and given them week-long training and made them participate in the competition.

scored better than expected and won the first place. That first place became the 'turning point' for him to become a shooting player. The competition was held at the shooting range of Satdoba. The present Guru Pradeep recognized the talent in him. Pradeep Guru, who will become a good player in the future, 'clicked' in the mind of Sushmita during the shoot. After that he encouraged Sushmita to become a shooting player. And Sushmita also became a leader in the direction of becoming a rifle-wielding hoothooti player. She was training, playing, her interest was increasing more and more.

Sushmita says, 'At that time, I only wanted to use a rifle, I did not want to become a shooting athlete. With the inspiration and guidance of the gurus, I kept learning, playing, working hard, now I am in the position of a national player.' Sushmita, who won bronze in the team event of 10m air rifle in the first official competition after starting

shooting, Rakhap Championship 2074, was also the best shooter. After that, his shooting aim became stronger. She attended an Asian youth camp in Kuwait. Then she went to Japan to play in the 10th Asian Air Gun Junior Championship. That tournament in 2017 was his first international participation.

Sushmita says that it is a great achievement for Nepali athletes to play in the Olympics. My dream also came true. Now I have the opportunity to do that. If I can perform well in Paris, it will be another special achievement for me.' He says, "This year we are pressure-free. No need to worry about materials like in the past. Just a year ago, new rifles, bullets, dresses were introduced. We are training in that. Players also get to gather international match experiences. Because of that, it is expected that Sushmita will do well.'

He added, 'We are playing in a new technique so that the player does not feel pressure, accordingly Sushmita is also completing the target. Hopefully, she will do well. Khati will also go to Paris as a coach. This is his second Olympic journey. Earlier in 2008 under his coaching Phulmaya Kapchapi played in Beijing Olympics.

After the Hangzhou Asiad, Sushmita participated in the Asian Shooting Championship in South Korea and the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship in Indonesia and also participated in a week's training in Pakistan. She says it gave her an opportunity to grow even more. She scored 616.2 in Indonesia last January.

Shooter Sushmita, a three-time NNIPA player of the year, is also pursuing her studies along with sports. His subject is business studies in his third year of bachelor's studies at Pinnacle Academy. She got married a year ago and says that she has full support from her family to continue the game.

Nepali shooting in the Olympics

Nepal has started participating in shooting since the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Since then, it has participated in every Olympics except Rio 2016. Nepali women players have participated in all but one.

Parvati Thapa competed in the 10m air rifle at the Seoul Olympics. Anita Shrestha in Barcelona Olympics 1992, Vibhaswari Rai in Atlanta Olympics 1996, Bhagwati KC in Sydney Olympics 2000, Tikaram Shrestha in Athens Olympics 2004, Phoolmaya Kapchaki in Beijing Olympics 2008, Sneh Rajyalakshmi Rana in London Olympics 2012 and Kalpana Pariyara in Tokyo Olympics 2020. Represented the shooting.