Shooter Swapnil Kusale, who made India and Maharashtra proud by winning a Bronze medal for India in 50m Rifle 3 Positions event in the 2024 Olympics, was accorded a hero’s welcome when he arrived at the Pune International Airport from Paris via New Delhi, on Thursday.
Thousands of people, who had turned out at the Pune airport to welcome Swapnil, cheered him lustily, amid thunderous shouts of “Bharat mata ki jai”. As he walked past the airport lounge, passengers, excited airport and airline staffers went on a spree of “shooting” the Olympian shooter.Once outside the airport, Swapnil was welcomed by Maharashtra’s Joint Director of Sports Suhas Patil.
His father Suresh Kusale and other family members could not make it to the Pune airport as they were on their way from his home town of Kolhapur to Pune by road at that time.
From the airport, Swapnil headed straight to Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganapati Temple where he performed aarti to Lord Ganesh.
Interacting briefly with the media after taking darshan of Lord Ganesh, Swapnil said: ”Whatever I have achieved is because of Lord Ganpati. That’s why I have come here first, before going to my native town of Kolhapur,” he said.
Twenty-eight-year-old Swapnil is an employee of Central Railway at Pune. Till he took part and won a bronze medal in Paris Olympic, Swapnil was
a Commercial cum Ticket Clerk of the Central Railway in Pune. He has now been promoted as an Officer on Special Duty, Sports Cell, Mumbai.
His 57-year-old Suresh Kusale is a teacher in a Zilla Parishad primary school, while his mother, Anita Kusale, is an elected sarpanch of Kambalwadi village.
Later on, Swapnil was taken in an open jeep from a nearby junction to the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi in Pune where he was accorded a public felicitation later in the evening.
