Inside shooter Maheshwari Chauhan’s trailblazing path: ‘In my formative years I don’t think we were learning the right way, I had to unlearn a lot'

If you have the time and of course the inclination, try to sometimes dig deeper while appraising an athlete. After all, they are all so much more than their results, medals, trophies and statistics.

There are very few pursuits in life which are more demanding – physically, mentally, psychologically and often intellectually, than sport. Which is why it is special when one gets the opportunity to talk to an athlete, not just about the result of the last competition they participated in or their plans for the upcoming one, but about how their journey began and what they have had to put into their sport, what the sport has taken away and what it has given them and who they have become in the pursuit of excellence that requires absolute, unwavering dedication. And if you are someone who likes to know the person behind the persona, then this is for you.

One sport that has become extremely popular in India in the last two decades or so is shooting. Rajyavardhan Rathore’s silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004 was a huge watershed moment for the popularity of the sport and Abhinav Bindra’s gold medal in Beijing ensured there was no ebb in the flow of that popularity. Of course, there were a few barren runs at the Olympics, but that hasn’t stopped more and more youngsters from taking up sport-shooting in the country. The fact that shooting academies are mushrooming across India, where youngsters can hire equipment, which in turn largely solves the problem of buying expensive equipment to pursue the sport, is proof that the trajectory of sport-shooting is on the upward curve. That along with numerous government initiatives, better infrastructure, more skilled foreign coaches, more media coverage and private sector support has ensured that India is now counted among global shooting powerhouses.

One sub-set of sport-shooting is ‘Skeet’ – a shotgun discipline. It is hands-down one of the most technically and physically challenging sporting disciplines, considered to be much more challenging than rifle and pistol disciplines. Which is why to understand what skeet really demands, one has to talk to someone who knows the sport inside-out.

And who better to talk to for this than India’s first-ever individual medal winner in women’s skeet at an international event – Maheshwari Chauhan.

After taking up skeet shooting in her teenage years, Maheshwari has become one of India’s premier shooters, winning as many as five Asian Championship medals, including that historic silver medal in 2017 that etched her name in the history book of Indian sports’ firsts.

An athlete who is clear-headed, focused, honest about how much she can push herself, accomplished and extremely articulate, Maheshwari likes to focus on the positives and not dwell on the what-ifs too much. Despite falling agonisingly short of a medal on her Olympic debut, the 29-year-old from Rajasthan knows the best way to deal with that is to commend herself for what she did manage to achieve in Paris last year and move on. It’s the kind of gumption and mental fortitude that champions are made of.

In a candid and detailed interview with Firstpost, Maheshwari talked about her sport of skeet-shooting and just how demanding it is, her journey so far, how she learnt most things on the job after making it to the Indian team at a rather young age, how she has to “forcefully” tell herself to stop when she has been training at the range for hours, the ‘confidence boosters’ she is working on and also what she is like when she is competing, amongst other things.

This is Part One of an exclusive interview with Maheshwari Chauhan.

Shooting is more of a mental sport than a physical one and skeet shooting is perhaps one of the toughest disciplines in the sport, so let’s go back right to the very beginning – what drew you to this discipline of shooting? Was it because of the other family members like your grandfather and father, who were both national-level shooters?

Maheshwari Chauhan: Yes, it was definitely family. My grandfather and father have been trap-shooters. I couldn’t find a trap coach. There was only one person available who could guide us in shooting and that’s how I got into skeet shooting. This was Mr. Amarjit Rai who was a National champion back in 2005-06.  He was available and he only knew how to coach skeet and that’s how I ended up in skeet. I don’t think I would have been around the sport if not for my family and seen it (up close and personal) growing up, because it can seem a bit daunting and something that one is not too sure about when it comes to the facilities and how to go about it.

How old were you when you decided that you want to do this professionally and what was the journey after that decision like in terms of getting the right coaching and guidance etc?

Maheshwari Chauhan: For me, this was something that my grandfather was dreaming about when I was growing up. When I was about 12 or 13, he told me – ‘I really want you to shoot for the country and I really want you to do well in this game and I think you can.’ I was (at that time) in a boarding school and was more interested in spending my summers with my cousins and my friends. Unfortunately, I lost my grandfather in 2012. I was 14 at the time and that’s when I thought – ‘he really wanted me to do this (take up shooting), so let me give it a shot.

I had just had a really long summer break after my 10th Board examinations and my father appointed a coach that summer itself and we started training. Skeet back then was very, very scarce in terms of the athletes who were pursuing it professionally. There were barely a handful of women in the entire country shooting (skeet) between the seniors and juniors. I kept qualifying at every level – state, pre-Nationals, North Zone and I went on to shoot in the Nationals and they went well. I had already qualified for the senior category and I was a bit like – ‘how does this work?’. It was all very exciting. It took me about a year and a half after approaching it professionally, with a coach, regular training and staying out of school to train and compete and at about 16-17 years of age, I was in the team playing my first junior World Cup. So, for me, I don’t think there was one single point where I said – ‘this is it’.

I think the decision that I took right after my Board examinations, right after I lost my grandfather, to give this a real shot was, I think, that little shift. At that time, I just wanted to see what kept coming my way. Also, I did get into the (Indian) team, but back in 2013-14 it was easier to be a part of the team because they wanted to promote the game, especially for female athletes. There were four senior women (at the time), that’s it. And they had been around for more than a decade each. So, they wanted to promote younger athletes who were coming in. The entire set-up was (geared) towards pushing more female athletes to compete, getting international exposure. So, I fell right into the middle of it. I was extremely fortunate because the entire system was working for it. My family was supporting me. So, I actually got my experience in the game literally learning everything about competition in World Cups and Grand Prix (events).

So, you learnt on the job really…

Maheshwari Chauhan: Pretty much, because I didn’t know what to expect. Ok, so I was in the Indian team, but what it meant to be in the Indian team was something that I had to learn after being in it.

This time at the Asian Shooting Championship, India had its most successful run with 99 medals. You were part of the bronze medal-winning women’s team with Ganemat (Sekhon) and Raiza (Dhillon). Tell me a little bit about this experience – how satisfied were you with the way you shot?

Maheshwari Chauhan: Overall, I wasn’t very satisfied, because it was the first Asian Championship where I didn’t finish with an individual medal. So, I was a bit disappointed. My last couple of them (Asian Shooting Championship outings) have been bronzes and even the team performances were better (Maheshwari was part of the gold medal-winning women’s team in 2024 in Kuwait and the silver medal-winning team in 2017 in Astana). My shooting was good (in the last Asian Championship in August 2025), (but) the range and the conditions were very challenging in this competition (in Shymkent, Kazakhstan), so the scores were overall lower because of the wind and the weather. I was happy with the way I shot but it didn’t translate (into medals). I was feeling far better than how it came out as a result and that’s why I was a bit disappointed. So, yes, I had a good final, but I didn‘t finish on the podium and finished fourth again. A bit of a stinger.

I was trying a few things in this competition and I have been sort of satisfied with how my international season went this year, with the three competitions that I played. I wanted to get an idea of sorts, working towards the Asian Games next year. It was important for me to go out and see what was working well and what I need to hone before I start the international season next March. I think I have got a fair idea and there’s a lot of work ahead if you have to beat the Chinese (laughs).

Shooting is such a precision sport that the margins are almost always extremely fine – you missed a bronze in the Paris Olympics in the mixed team event with Anantjeet. But I think the fact that you were in medal contention was huge. Of course, one can conduct an almost endless post-mortem of the performance, but the fact that you were there, pushing the best in the world on the day was a big feat. Do you also see it that way?

Maheshwari Chauhan: Yes. Even then I knew that what we had done in that moment was important – for our sport, not just for us. There are two ways to look at it. One is of course the fact that you missed out on a medal, but I like to focus on the fact that we were in a position to almost win a medal. When you are playing a sport that is not very popular, doesn’t have the kind of popularity, support, background and structure that the sport needs to have, you just don’t know where the limit is. It’s always you who is deciding – what next? There will always be athletes who will be thinking – ‘let me be the first to do this’ and I think that’s what our motivation is. I think that’s one of the reasons why you see a lot of young athletes come in and say – ‘I want to be the first, I want to do this’. A lot of the time we end up setting limits. I knew, going into the Olympics, that I was in good form, I was training well. But there is also this whole approach of – ‘Olympics pahunch gaye, bas khush (have qualified for the Olympics, I am happy) – I didn’t have that, but I didn’t know what to expect.

It was our first Olympics (Maheshwari and Anantjeet) made their Olympic debuts in Paris last year. It was also the first time the team event was being played in skeet at the Olympics) and I didn’t know what to expect. Of course, we put up a good show but they were a point better (Maheshwari and Anantjeet lost the bronze medal match by one point against a Chinese pair – 43-44) and it was as simple as that.

For the layman can you explain what are the basic physical and technical requirements for someone to become a skeet shooter, considering it’s such a fast and extremely challenging discipline. Not everyone who opts to take up shooting can become a skeet or for that matter a shotgun shooter, right?

Maheshwari Chauhan: Yes. You are absolutely spot on about the fact that it (skeet) is a very technically demanding and challenging discipline of shooting. And it is (also) ever-changing. It’s funny, really – the 25 targets are the same but they are always different when you approach them. So, for anyone starting out I think the most basic standard would be – of course you need to be physically and mentally fit – but you (also) need to have really good reaction time and hand-eye coordination. That is the most basic. You need to have very prompt reaction time. You need to have very good peripheral vision as well. And then mounting the gun – that is one of the most important technical elements. Even the most seasoned of shooters practice their mounting in every training session, because you don’t mount the gun in skeet, it’s below your elbow line, and only when the target is out in the air is when you are allowed to mount the gun and move it.

In other sporting disciplines like say athletics, you see people who are really fit. In shooting you could see someone who is on the heathier side and maybe not the fittest person around and still doing well in the game, because they have practiced their technique so much that they go on to mentally develop in the game. And I think that is the bigger challenge. Technique is something that you can work on and acquire and then keeping it polished and keeping yourself mentally in the game in your routine, over the years with the level of commitment that it requires is the biggest challenge and (that is) something that one should really be prepared for. It’s not a sport that will give you results very fast.

In skeet shooting an entire round goes by rather quickly and every shooter has his or her own method of staying calm and focussed and ‘in the zone’. What is your go-to when it comes to this?

Maheshwari Chauhan: I think slowing down and breathing well is something that has consistently worked (for me). Being ‘in the zone’ and ‘in the flow’ it keeps changing with the conditions available, but breathing is something that I can monitor and regulate. I really enjoy being under pressure and I think that is the reason I have continued to stay with the game to see what more it has to offer. Also, a lot of visualisation is something that I have been doing. I did this to reach the Olympics. It took me a decade. I was sure of what I wanted, but it (still) took me a decade to get there. But I had the same mental dialogue that I used to use on myself. There are some things that become your go-to.

It’s different for every athlete – some are very superstitious, they might wear their socks inside out, some might only wear red – everyone has their own quirks, I suppose, that seems to work for them. I don’t like to have too many variables when I am shooting or when I am approaching a competition. I like to go to the simplest, easiest thing that I think is going to work for me when I am under pressure, so I like to remove all variables. I just want to be more fluid. I like to focus on breathing. Humming music is something that is really good (for me) and something that I have very recently stumbled upon, in the last two years now – having physical (signs of) aggression in movement and body language than actual aggression. That is something that I am still exploring, but it seems to be working. It’s hard to do that consistently, because I am not an aggressive person naturally, so I am just trying to see where to put that in my routine.

So, when it’s executed in the right way, at the right time, these ‘aggressive movements’ could be a confidence booster?

Maheshwari Chauhan: Yes. You know, a lot of people watch the Olympic finals and are very charged up – fist-bumping etc. That’s the kind of physical aggression or attitude that worked really well for me. Everyone saw me doing it throughout matches and it went with the ambience and atmosphere. But usually the way the matches are, it takes me a while to turn into that person.

Because that is not your natural self…

Maheshwari Chauhan: Yes. It’s not something that I am used to (doing). When I am in the thick of things, it does feel quite natural and I feel super pumped-up and super charged, but I am still trying to see how I can make it fit into my routine.

What is Maheshwari Chauhan like when she is competing? Do you fall in the category of shooters who like to stay to themselves well before the event starts or do you mingle with others and go into your ‘zone’ only closer to the start of the event?

Maheshwari Chauhan: The latter. I am a very chatty person. I like to have fun conversations. It helps me not to go too deep into things and get too bogged down by the match (that I am playing) or the next one that is coming up or what the previous score was or any of that. I like to stay super light, where I am not spending too much energy. That is where having a team really helps, because usually people change on match days and I don’t like to. But sometimes you just have to because you don’t have a choice. So, I will play some really light games like ‘Snakes and Ladders’ or ‘Ludo’ on my phone with a teammate or friend. But I don’t like to change (my demeanour) too much on my match days.

It’s right before my matches, during my warm-up time – 45 minutes or an hour prior to my match is when I like to shut off. Then I focus on being present. My warm-up to my dry-training (shooting without live ammunition loaded in the gun), my breathing techniques to my eye-drills. I like to take my own time. I like to have my own playlist. I like to do things at my own pace and that is the only time I want to be completely left alone. Otherwise, I am okay with any silly banter, some card games between matches- it’s all fun and light that way. (It’s) good energy as well.

That is of course very important – the energies you surround yourself with and those that you find yourself in the vicinity of…

Maheshwari Chauhan: Exactly, yes.

This is when you are competing. But what is your usual training routine like – when you are training for a major tournament or event that’s coming up? How often do you train and how do you break up your training schedule?

Maheshwari Chauhan: I think it’s a very Indian system, I suppose, but I am conditioned to always train a lot. So, I do train a fair bit. I train almost 5-6 times a week. Also, it depends on which part of the year or which season we are in. Across summer I like to train in Italy because in India it’s really difficult to put in quality training, because recovery gets very difficult with how hot it is. Today, when I have the support and since my coach is Italian (Riccardo Filippelli), I like to travel to Italy and train there. Before a major World Cup or World Championship, I do like to be more individualistic in my approach, just having my team by my side. I almost cut myself off from everything else. It’s just my coach, my physio, my trainer with me and that’s it. It’s almost like a boot-camp situation and that’s the only way I really enjoy my training, so I can put it about six hours of training at the range and then physical training later in the day.

Across the season, if I am training alone, I usually break down my training session here in India between morning and evening – about three hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, before going to the gym. I like to keep putting myself in different pressure-training situations, I like to keep the game fun. So, sometimes I like to stick to the basics and sometimes I will just stand outside the platforms (stations where the shooters stand to fire at the clay targets. There are 8 stations in all in skeet shooting at different spots) and train. Sometimes I will do some fun drills or a fun competition or a shoot-off at any random station (platform). The game demands so much from you that it never gets boring or mundane for me when I am at the range. I have to in fact forcefully tell myself – ‘you need to stop now. You can come back’. Otherwise, it just keeps drawing you in.

You are so right. It’s part of our Indian mental make-up and our psyche that ‘practice makes you perfect’. That’s the mantra we have been following since we were kids, regardless of what we were doing…

Maheshwari Chauhan: Yes, but no one talks about how much practice is good for you and how much is not. It’s now, at this level, after a decade, where I have (learnt) to show restraint, force myself to be away and have a much stronger approach, that – ‘this is the work and I know how to do it and it just comes down to that’. When this kind of restraint and guidance was needed in my formative years, unfortunately I didn’t have that support. Back then I don’t think we were learning the right way, I didn’t have very good technique, so my basics weren’t as great. I actually had to unlearn and then learn things correctly, which was far, far more challenging.

Watch this space for Part 2 of this free-wheeling chat with 5-time Asian Championship medallist, Maheshwari Chauhan.