This Award Is Significant, My Story Now Reaching People Outside My Field: Deepali Deshpande

Sometime before noon on Sunday, crew members of a TV channel landed at Deepali Deshpande's residence for an interview. Likewise, other media outlets are also now looking to highlight her contributions to Indian shooting that have hitherto gone unnoticed.

Nominated for this year's Dronacharya Award after having coached Olympic, World Cup and World Championship medallist shooters over many years of service, the new-found attention is a novelty for the former rifle shooter.

The shooters she has helped achieve success in top global tournaments, including Swapnil Kusale, Arjun Babuta, Anjum Moudgil and Shriyanka Shadangi, recently voiced their support for their long-serving coach for the prestigious award.

She has been receiving calls and messages from family, friends, and classmates, including one from the US, who expressed her joy at "going to the same school" as Deepali.

This is how things have changed in an otherwise simple life since the news of her being nominated for the country's top prize in coaching became public.

"The main significance of this award is that your story is reaching many more people now, people outside my field, common man" Deepali told PTI during an interaction.

"I started getting calls from my school friends, people like that. Common man who is otherwise not really interested in sports, know about you." The veteran coach added, "For my family too, it means so much as they are the non sports people because, in your field almost everybody knows what you are doing. They know it all.

"One of my school friends who now lives in the US is so glad. Bal Mohan Vidya Mandir is a big school in Mumbai and my school has big names to boast. One of the mayor in a US state is from our school. They are now living everywhere." As per the requirements, Deepali has applied for the honour in the past and she doesn't feel there needs to be a change in the policy for choosing candidates for national sports awards, except for the Khel Ratna.

"Except for the Khel Ratna, I think the other awards are fine. Khel Ratna, is different because you are awarding it to someone for his extraordinary achievements over a period of four years, so a lot of people would have known about the athlete.

"So, for Khel Ratna, they can nominate people directly instead of self applying, but for other awards, the system is okay, as long as the intention behind this is good.

"This way everybody gets to keep their achievements in front of the committee. Otherwise it is not possible for everybody to know everyone.. I think this system was made to make it more transparent," Deepali said.

Her views come a few days after a controversy erupted over the shocking exclusion of double Olympic-medallist Manu Bhaker for this year's Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award. Bhaker's name though was later added to the list alongside Indian men's hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh, chess world champion D Gukesh and Paralympics gold medallist high jumper Praveen Kumar.

For many of her wards, she is not just a shooting coach with Olympic bronze medallist Swapnil saying that she is like his "second mother" after his podium finish in Paris.

The award is a validation of not just her contributions but also the achievements of her students.

"It's a big deal also for people even remotely associated with you. Making the smallest difference to people associated with you, it's very satisfying. My students were more worried than me whether I would get it or not.

"Every year Shriyanka would be like ma'am 'you have applied, right? Please apply'. She made sure that I apply.. With them it's like we are a family as we have been together for so long.

Deepali started her coaching career in 2010 at the club level and then came in as a chief coach for the junior team in 2012, when the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) launched the junior coaching programme.

This is where she met the likes of Akhil Sheoran, Babuta, Navdeep Singh Rathore, Moudgil and others.

Asked about her coaching philosophy, Deepali said she approaches each shooter differently as all of them are different.

"I had a 11-year daughter when I entered the junior coach programme in 2012... Akhil, Shriyanka were 15-16 years old at that time. Because I had a teenager at home, I could understand these shooters better. It also helped me with my daughter who was 11 then.

"It's not that I am not a disciplinarian but one size doesn't fit all. You cannot break their spirit., we can't achieve anything that way. You have to find a different way for each one of them.

"You have to understand that it's all about them and not about you, have to keep ego aside," Deepali said.

Among her wards' success in top international tournaments, Kusale won the bronze medal in the men's 50m rifle 3-positions shooting event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, becoming the first Indian to finish on the podium in this particular event at the Games.

Moudgil has also had a very successful shooting career, winning multiple medals in top global events such as the ISSF World Championships, World Cups, Asian Championships and Commonwealth Games. And so are the likes of Babuta, Sift Kaur Samra and Shriyanka, who keeping winning medals every now and then.