Tamil Nadu shooter Prithviraj to debut at Olympics

CHENNAI: Prithviraj Tondaiman is at the peak of his powers. At 37, he is all set to become the first shooter from Tamil Nadu to take part in the Olympics. Coming from the lineage of Maharaja of Pudukkottai, Prithviraj — son of Rajagopala Tondaiman who was also a shooter — had fallen short of qualification for Rio and Tokyo Olympics. Paris, however, will see the trap shooter stake his claim at the biggest stage.

The road to this point, however, has not been a featherbed. After missing out on Tokyo Games, Prithviraj was determined to give his everything over the next three years to make the Paris dream happen. He was working as hard as he ever did, training as much as he always used to. However, it all took one conversation with Russell Mark, who joined as India coach in 2022, to lift him up.

The first time Mark met Prithviraj and watched him train, he told the Indian that everything is perfect with his technique and he has the ability to win a medal. “Till that point, no one had said that to me,” recalls Prithviraj in a conversation with this daily. “Him being a champion, olympic medallist twice… someone like him saying that… It kind of changed me a lot. We haven’t had someone who came to a player and said you can win a medal. They often try to correct the mistakes, but he was the first to say I can win a medal,” he adds in an interaction facilitated by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).