Vijayveer Sidhu

Some Lesser Known Facts About Vijayveer Sidhu

• Vijayveer Sidhu is an Indian sports shooter. He is known for bagging the 17th Paris Games quota place for India in January 2024.

• Vijayveer Sidhu started sports shooting at the age of 8 during a summer camp at St Xavier’s School in Mansa, Punjab. In 2015, he, along with his family, moved to Sector 51, Chandigarh, to provide better shooting training for him and his brother.

• He took his professional training under coach D. S. Chandel. In June 2018, Vijjayveer became famous after he won the gold medal in the 25m air pistol event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Cup in Suhl, Germany. According to Vijayveer, he and his brother won the gold medal with borrowed pistols. Vijayveer shot with teammate and friend Arjun Singh Cheema’s gun, whereas his brother used the coach’s gun. In an interview, he said that he and his brother won medals with borrowed pistols at the Junior ISSF World Championships in Changwon. ^[1]The Times of India

• Since 2019, Vijayveer’s main goal has been to win a medal at the Paris Olympics in 2024. In 2019, he talked about his further targets and revealed that he first wanted to clear his class 1 exams and then focus on the Paris 2024 Games. He said,
  

  Right now, we are grounded. You can understand, that our mother is a schoolteacher. Disconnected from the world, we get mobile phones for only an hour a day. We are doing focused study. Further targets? “Tokyo (Olympics) to mushkil hai (looks difficult) but we guarantee to be there in Paris in 2024.”

• Vijayveer has represented India at various International shooting tournaments including ISSF Junior World Cup in 2018, World Championships in 2021, and the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

• In November 2021, Vijayveer Sidhu won against his twin brother Udhayveer Sidhu by one point to win the gold in the junior men’s 25-metre sports pistol event in the 64th National Shooting Championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad. Vijayveer shot 289 in the first stage and 298 in the second stage. His brother shot 292 and 294 in the two stages. ^[2]The Hindu

• In 2023, Vijayveer represented India at the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. In the men’s 25 m rapid-fire pistol team event, he and his teammates Adarsh Singh and Anish Bhanwala won home a bronze medal. However, Vijayveer did not rank among medal winners in the 25 m rapid-fire pistol men’s final shooting event as he stood fourth with a score of 21 points.

• Vijayveer Sidhu was inspired by Indian shooter Gagan Narang to pursue sports shooting.

• On 13 January 2024, Vijayveer Sidhu won an Olympic quota berth for the Paris Olympics in the 25m rapid fire by winning a silver medal at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Jakarta, Indonesia.