Apurvi Chandela Biography

DATE

13 Jun 2021

Apurvi Chandela Biography

‘The things you take for granted, someone else is praying for; so value what you have, always stay humble and remember that there is no substitute for hard work.’

Living by this philosophy of her father, Apurvi Chandela has jumped from one milestone to another, with a lot of focus and hard work, in the last few years. She is the second Indian to win the gold medal at ISSF after Anjali Bhagwat.

The emerging star has multiple facets to her personality and has had an exciting journey. Did you know that she shot a score of perfect 10 on the first visit to a shooting range? Today we cover these and many more interesting facts about the rising star in the Apurvi Chandela’s biography.

Apurvi Chandela Biography

Family Background

Apurvi Chandela was born and brought up in Jaipur. Her father, Kuldeep Singh Chandela, is a hotelier and her mother, Bindu Rathore, is a homemaker. Apurvi has done her graduation from Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University. She has a degree in Sociology with honours.

Apurvi has balanced her sporting career and education really well. She always wanted to pursue a career related to sports, if not be a sportsperson. Her agenda was to be a sports journalist. However, life had bigger plans for her.

Journey

Rifle shooting was never really the plan for Apurvi when she went to a local shooting range in Jaipur. Not comfortable with a piston, she picked up a rifle and ended up shooting a complete ten!

Her father was mighty impressed with this and was the first to discover her inherent talent. Her uncle was equally supportive and built a shooting range in his own backyard.

Apurvi took to rifle shooting as a fish takes to water. She started bagging awards and won the bronze at state-level competition.

Apurvi Chandela Shooting Graph

Apurvi entered the senior circuit with a bang. In her very first year, she won the gold medal at the 2012 National Shooting Championships in New Delhi. In 2014, she won two individual and two team medals at the Intershoot Championships in The Hague.

She followed it up with a stellar gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. The win was all the more special for Apurvi as she had suffered an ankle ligament tear just before the tournament. Although she was in pain, she gave it her all and made the nation proud.

In 2015, Apurvi won the bronze medal at the World Cup. It was truly a special win for her.

Apurvi qualified for the Rio Olympics in 2016. She qualified on the basis of her bronze medal at the Changwon World Cup and became the first Indian woman to do so. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get a podium finish.

For the Asiads, Apurvi started training under National Champion Rakesh Manpat. Their hard work bore fruit as she won the bronze medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event with Ravi Kumar.

At the 2019 ISSF World Cup, she won the gold medal in the 10m air rifle event.

Interesting Facts About Apurvi Chandela

• Apurvi’s hobbies include reading and travelling. She also loves to play basketball.
• Abhinav Bindra is Apurvi’s shooting hero. In fact, she took up shooting after his Olympic gold medal.
• Her family has always been her biggest support. Her father encouraged her right from the beginning of her career, her uncle built a shooting range for her, and so it isn’t surprising that she takes her family to all her tournaments. Her parents accompany her for international tournaments as well.
• Apurvi considers herself to be emotionally challenged! Most athletes are known for their emotional outburst on the field, but Apurvi believes in keeping a check on her expressions. Her lack of reaction has become so famous that even some of her relatives have advised her to be more expressive.

“I try to stay neutral during both winning and losing. It’s a game at the end of the day, and all I do is try to give my best on that given day and hope that my best is enough. I cannot deny the fact that it does take a lot of strength from within to fight it out and remind myself why I’m doing this…that this is the sport that gives me happiness. So I need to pull myself together and keep moving forward,” she told the Verve Magazine in an interview.

Well, as long as those medals keep coming, Apurvi doesn’t need to worry about anything else!

• Unwinding with her three dogs is the most relaxing part of her day. She has three pet dogs! She is an animal lover.
• Apurvi trains for around six hours every day. She also does yoga and meditates for mental fitness.
• If a biopic was made on Apurvi’s life, she would want Kangana Ranaut to play her role.

Achievements

• 10m Air Rifle World Record 2019 – Gold
• ISSF World Cup, Changwon 2015 – Bronze
• Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2014 – Gold
• National Championships, Delhi 2012 – Gold
• Intershoot Competition, Netherlands 2014 – Gold and Bronze

World Cup Final

World Cup

Commonwealth Games

Asian Games

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