Deepali Deshpande: The Dronacharya behind India’s shooting stars

As a coach, former Olympian and Asian medallist rifle shooter Deepali Desphande has always believed in staying away from the limelight. The spotlight will, however, be trained on both her and favourite disciple Swapnil Kusale when she walks out to receive the Dronacharya Award from the Indian President in Delhi on 17 January.

It will be a heady evening for India's shooting community as Kusale, who claimed a bronze in 50m rifle 3-positions at the Paris Olympics, will receive the Arjuna Award while double bronze medallist Manu Bhaker will receive the highest honour, the Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna.

Deepali, who has been mentoring the stream of Gen-X shooters doing the country proud in her junior programme since 2012, had six of her protégés in Paris this time, but the likes of Arjun Babuta narrowly missed out on a medal.

‘’It feels good when all the work you have done over the years is recognised. A national award has a special place in the Indian sports ecosystem, though you work to create shooters and not awards,’’ the 55-year-old from Mumbai said. A contemporary of Suma Shirur and Anjali Bhagwat, Deepali won a silver in the 2004 Asian Shooting and participated in the Athens Olympics as well.

From being the whipping boys of India’s Olympic fraternity and the media for drawing a blank at Tokyo 2020 despite the hype, it was a redemption of sorts last year for the shooters. The medals tally in Paris could have at least doubled with the likes of Babuta landing agonising fourth-place finishes in some other events, and Deepali feels it’s time to start planning a change in the colour of medals to gold in Los Angeles 2028.

Speaking to National Herald exclusively over phone, the Dronacharya recipient felt Paris will act as a kind of barrier-breaker for shooting after the disappointment of Tokyo. ‘’It was very hard to digest the results. The run-up to that Olympics was somewhat strange as everyone kept talking about the Covid pandemic rather than the preparation. However, after two rather unique cycles of Olympics, things are back to normal. A lot of coaching camps are now being planned as good preparation is a must to succeed in the big events,’’           

Soon after retiring from active shooting, Deepali started a three-lane range next to her residence, opening a junior programme in 2012. The names of her protégés over the years reads like a who’s who of the current movers and shakers of Indian rifleshooting: Kusale, Babuta, Elavenil Valarivan, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Akhil Sheoran, Mehuli Ghosh while Manu Bhaker and Arjun Cheema were a part of the same junior programme under Jaspal Rana. A number of these disciples collectively rooted for Deepali for the award in the last week of December 2024.

‘’When we were in the middle of our careers, the NRAI (National Rifle Association of India) was dependent on foreign coaches. The situation started changing with the likes of Jaspal or me coming into coaching and over the past 10-12 years, I crisscrossed the country more than I ever did as an athlete, in search of promising juniors,’’ the easygoing coach said.

How difficult was it as an itinerant coach to balance her familial obligations and coaching? ‘’It was not easy but all my family members have been really supportive. My daughter was also growing up and I couldn’t keep up with social obligations most of the time. My brothers have been a rock as well,’’ she said.

Interestingly, Deepali was not part of the shooting contingent in Paris as she had not been among the national coaches over 2022 and 23. The issue of personal coaches travelling with athletes to big events has been a contentious one, but she glossed over it: ‘’I had been training Swapnil since he was a kid in 2013. He was always in touch with me from Paris.’’

An extremely heartening feature for shooting as a sport in India has been the number of youngsters who have taken to the sport over the past decade. ‘’The biggest breakthrough for shooting had been breaking the myth that it’s an elitist sport. Swapnil himself comes from a middle-class family and there is a system in place whereby a kid can start at the local rifle clubs where a number of shooters can share a weapon. The state bodies are there to provide help at the next level, and if some of them start showing promise, then it’s not that difficult to find sponsors,’’ she said.

The sport is indeed catching on. If there is a Manu Bhaker or Swapnil Kusale in the Olympics fold, there is a double gold medallist Avani Lekhara in the Paralympics as well. And there is a Deepali Deshpande to keep a quiet but eagle eye on them.