With Asian Games glory, shooter Elavenil Valarivan has a rock off her back
At 27, rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan already feels like a veteran of the squad. After all, she has represented India in two Olympics (Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024) and won multiple World Cup, Asian and World Championship medals at both junior and senior levels.
Yet there had been this sense that Ela, as she is endearingly known, couldn’t deliver on the super stage—Asian Games and Olympics—when most Indians tune in to follow shooting with gusto. At the recently concluded Asian Games in Japan, it felt like she finally had that rock off her back. “Now, I am even more inclined to be a better version of myself for the upcoming competitions,” says Valarivan. “It’s a big confidence-booster.”
Valarivan made a mark not just for her two silver medals in the 10m rifle and 10m women’s team events respectively, but also for the gold she wore in her ears. A close-up image of the rifle gun studs she sported went viral on social media.
Is it a good luck charm? “I think it is,” she says. “I got it before my brother’s wedding. Then I became Asian champion and a world champion medallist, and now an Asian Games medallist.” Around the same time, she’d add a traditional bugadi earring purchased from the family jeweller in Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu.
Cuddalore-born Valarivan, though, represents Gujarat, the state her parents moved to and where she has lived since she was three. “I am a proud Gujarati. I have lived all my life in Ahmedabad; it is my home,” she says. “I am a Gujarati from heart. I am out during Navratri, dancing all night to tunes of the garba. I love hogging on dhokla and khamas.”Since 2017, however, Valarivan has been spending most of her time in Chennai. The Sri Ramachandra Centre for Sports Science has been her training base, its indoor range developed in collaboration with Gagan Narang's Gun for Glory Shooting Academy, of which Valarivan is a protege. “It has a beautiful range; there’s an indoor running track, an indoor swimming pool, doctors and physiotherapists, and a canteen serving nutritious food,” she notes.
To make it to the Asian Games squad in the fiercely competitive shooting scene in India is no easy feat, and Valarivan has held onto her position through trials for nearly a decade now. “I know I want to be part of the team and am disciplined to give 100 per cent every single day,” she says.
Sacrifices, she adds, are part and parcel of it, including not seeing her family for months. But often, doubts and lack of motivation have played spoilsport, especially when dealing with disappointments. “There have been so many instances where I felt I can’t do this, that I can’t wake up one more day and do the same routine again without expecting anything,” she says.
The shooter credits her team for ensuring she didn’t give up. “If not for their tireless efforts—my mentor Gagan Narang, coach Neha Chauhan, team at Gun for Glory, psychologist Kirtika Pandey, nutritionist Madhu, and the strength and conditioning coach,” says Valarivan. “They stood behind me and supported me. Having the team’s trust in me is beyond words.”
With the Los Angeles Olympics only two years away, Ela knows India’s shooting contingent will once again have to carry a chunk of the medal expectations. At the Asian Games, shooting delivered only three golds, resulting in a wave of criticism. “They expect from us because they know we can deliver,” rationalises Valarivan. “We have been delivering, but not to the level expected out of us.”
Do detractors get to her? Says Valarivan: “I don’t think about the naysayers. It doesn’t make a huge difference when they congratulate or criticise me. Medal or not, it doesn’t change that I go to the range every day and put in my 100 per cent.”
With the Asian Games done and dusted, Valarivan has already set new targets. There’s the World Championships in November, and then begins the job of India earning the Olympic quota and her making the team cut. If she does, Valarivan would be one of the senior members of the shooting squad. “Now, I am the Didi of the gang,” she says with a laugh. “And I have to be the responsible one.”
Suhani Singh is a Deputy Editor at India Today magazine, where she writes on entertainment, sports and culture. Based in Mumbai, she has been a part of the India Today Group since 2013. She began her journalistic career covering dance and film beats for Time Out Mumbai magazine. She is also a member of the Film Critics Guild.
