The Legend of Jaspal Rana
- Avnish Anand
- Jul 12
- 5 min read
Avnish Anand
A long suffering Indian sports fan’s homage to a great man who changed Indian shooting forever
I am a 47 year old long suffering Indian sports fan and I fully understand the impact Jaspal Rana had on Indian sport.
This is my personal homage to him.
Firstly, it’s really sad for any human being to die at 49 in today’s day and age.
Losing someone who made such a huge difference in a country starved of sporting success is almost catastrophic.
Let me walk you through the moments of joy he gave me as an Indian sports fan.
In 1990, we hit our sporting nadir at the Asian games in Beijing winning only one gold in Kabaddi and finishing well below Pakistan which actually won 4.
We had no hopes of winning medals at the Olympics.
The Asian Games were our only hope and in 1990 it felt as if that stage was also becoming too big for us.
We watched the 1994 Games in Hiroshima with a a lot of trepidation therefore. Will we revive ourselves or fall further down the pecking order.
Two men saved the day for me and countless other Indians. Leander Paes who helped us win two golds in tennis and Jaspal Rana who won a gold in shooting. We finished above Pakistan and we are at least back to our normal levels of Asian mediocrity and subcontinental dominance.
Prior to this we had only won 1 Asian Games gold in shooting.
The next 12 years weren’t so great.
Rana didn’t win anything in Asia and failed big time at the Olympics.
I had almost written him off. Am sure so had everyone else. Then he provided all of us wrong.
At the 2006 Doha Asian Games, he won 3 gold medals including two in individual events.
The only other Indian to win 3 golds at a single Asian Games before him was PT Usha.
They remained in that exclusive club till two archers joined them in 2022.
It was another unprecedented performance by Rana.
Someone we all thought was done.
Indians were not supposed to do such things at the Asian Games.
Till date we have won 16 gold medals at the Asian Games. Rana won 4 of them himself and influenced most of the others.
This is just part one of his legend.
Part 2 is the Olympics
Every time I would have high hopes for Rana at the Olympics and he would disappoint. I never quite understood why.
Then I researched and figured out part of the answer.
Rana did not win an Olympic medal primarily because his main events — the 25m Standard Pistol and 25m Center Fire Pistol — were non-Olympic disciplines.
I would wonder why he wasn’t changing his events and focusing more on the ones which were part of the Olympics.
How different could they be.
I was sure he could have done well in them had he focussed on them.
Why wasn’t he doing it ?
Didn’t he have Olympic aspirations ?
I got the answer much later and it made me respect him and love him even more.
Rana openly admitted he prioritized events like Standard and Center Fire Pistol because medals at those levels were crucial for the country’s shooting identity at the time.
:His long-time mentor Tibor Gonczol attempted to prepare him strictly for the Olympics, but Rana was unwilling to abandon the events he heavily dominated.
This was maturity and foresight of the highest order. An unselfish individual who thought of the greater good of the sport.
In his own words — “ For 16 years, I performed in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
Tibor tried to prepare me for the Olympics.
I did not have the mindset to give up on something I was so good at, and which gave Indian shooting such an identity, and pursue something in which I was not so good.
Had I compromised my time with other events, I may not have been that good in anything.
Those two events were important in getting Indian shooting the recognition and the progress that it has made thus far.
All the support for shooting was triggered because of that.
I didn’t want to change any of that just because I had to be at my best in the Olympics, for which there was no guarantee.
It was not meant for me, and I have no regrets.”
He was proven right and his sacrifice was worth the effort as the sport took off in India and we have now won 7 Olympic medals including 3 in the last one.
It has happened because more and more money and other types of support has poured into the sport.
Part 3 of his legend is Rana the Coach and mentor
Indian sport has a long history of Individuals excelling inspite of the system without much support.
Unfortunately, very few of these individuals go on to do something which changes the lives of the next generation.
There are two big exceptions to this. Pullela Gopichand in badminton and Jaspal Rana in shooting.
Only 3 Indians have won both the Arjuna Award for Individual excellence and the Dronacharya Award for coaching.
Pullela Gopichand in badminton, Sanjeeva Singh in archery and Jaspal Rana in shooting.
His most famous and successful story is his coaching and mentoring of Manu Bhaker who sensationally won two medals at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Unbeknownst to most, Rana started coaching in 2012 and spent more than a decade coaching young Indian shooters.
Even though he was a strict disciplinarian and a stickler for details, the young shooters he coached absolutely loved him.
He may have failed to win a medal as a shooter himself but he more than made up for it as a coach.
His passing leaves a serious void and there’s absolutely no one who can fill his massive shoes.
A short but GREAT life
Jaspal Rana died young. He was only 49. Which is only two years older than me. It saddens me to think of how soon he left us and how much more he could have done.
But then I think of everything he did.
Only a handful of people achieve greatness as an individual performer, as a coach and inspire generations.
He did more than anyone ( and that includes Abhinav Bindra who by the way also played a big role ) to nature the fortunes of Indian shooting.
Every time an Indian shooter will stand on an Olympic podium, lots of us will think of Rana.
That is truly a great great life.
RIP Jaspal Rana. Om Shanti
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