19-year-old shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary recently qualified for the Tokyo Olympics and represented India at the games. However, their campaign ended early as they crashed out of the qualifying round 2 of the mixed team medal match after topping the first round in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event. As per a report in TOI, Manu also had a weapon malfunction during the women’s 10m air pistol qualification.
Following this, some people started criticizing the duo by posting memes and tweets in poor taste:
Manu Bhaker with kids in Asian games
Vs
Manu Bhaker in Olympic#shooting pic.twitter.com/1YqmGmZp30— Anshuman (@Anshuman84m2) July 27, 2021
Manu Bhaker in World greatest shooters with No. 1 world Ranking. pic.twitter.com/x0rYVMMXp7
— Anshuman (@Anshuman84m2) July 25, 2021
Saurabh Chaudhary to Manu Bhaker after her pathetic performance in finals of #Shooting pic.twitter.com/TLnmkTMftI
— Gurjar Nikhil 0.2 (@GurjarNikhil021) July 27, 2021
Manu Bhaker : a big let down in Tokyo Olympics . Hope all the hype around her will subside now and our media friends should stop bloating her illogically and un ecessarily
— Raja Mitra (@RajaMitraenligh) July 29, 2021
Hard truth . Indians need to digest this . Let’s see what reason Manu bhakar will give today for her loss
— mr stark (@human71097878) July 27, 2021
13 years old are winning Olympics..
So age shouldn’t be an excuse— Nikhil Magdum (@nikhil9630) July 27, 2021
Amid the disappointing and unwarranted backlash, many jumped to the support of the young athletes:
Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary finish 7th in the Mixed Team Air Pistol event.
You gave hopes to a billion people at 19 years of age. You will give hopes again. Fret not. Be proud. And come back stronger. #Shooting pic.twitter.com/X5kmuTvgGI
— Naman Agarwal (@CoverDrivenFor4) July 27, 2021
Manu Bhaker says she put too much pressure on herself. In fact when she shot an 8 she turned towards her coach in disbelief. Said she wanted to win desperately and that put too much pressure on her. #Tokyo2020
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) July 27, 2021
She was so close that if that last shot was an inner 10 she wud have been in the finals even after going through a complete weapon breakdown in between the match. Stop judging athletes on numbers coz maybe that's the only thing u can understand. Start understanding Performance!!
— Heena SIDHU (@HeenaSidhu10) July 25, 2021
One of the best idea was, "Like Cricket bats, she should have multiple pistols. If one fails, use the other"
Dude it's an Olympic competition, not a Shooting duel in the Wild West
Also it will help, if instead of giving gyaan once in 4 years, you follow shooting closely.
— The Kaipullai (@thekaipullai) July 25, 2021
Two stunning results ….Atanu Das knocks out the 2012 Olympic Champion in Archery. Manu Bhaker, trolled mercilessly a few days ago, shoots a brilliant 292 to be 5th at the halfway stage of the Women’s 25m Pistol
— Digvijay Singh Deo (@DiggySinghDeo) July 29, 2021
Sport in India. Simone Biles withdraws from an Olympic final due to mental health issues and everyone is praying for her well being. 19 year old Manu Bhaker has a bad day as a shooter and armchair experts want her dropped from the team.
— Digvijay Singh Deo (@DiggySinghDeo) July 27, 2021
What do you think of this shameful online behavior of dragging players down? Tell us.