In India, players have to face many struggles to come forward and make a name for themselves in any sport. This challenge is more for the youth coming from small parts of the country. If a player is associated with any other sport other than cricket, then he has to face many problems. Dealing with financial constraints is the biggest and most seen challenge in this. And if that athlete is not physically fully capable, then these challenges increase manifold. Still, the number of Indian players in para-games is constantly increasing and success is also being achieved. One such inspiring player is Rubina Francis, who had to struggle even to stand straight on her feet, whose mechanic father had to fulfill his daughter's dream despite being in a poor financial condition and that dream was also fulfilled in the Paris Paralympics, where Rubina won the bronze medal.

Rubina Francis won the bronze medal in the women's 10m air pistol SH-1 category at the Paralympics 2024 Games being held in Paris. With this, 25-year-old Rubina also created history by becoming the first Indian woman to win a pistol shooting medal at the Paralympics. Rubina, who was participating in her second Paralympics, reached the final by finishing 7th in the qualification, where she won the bronze medal by finishing third with 211.1 points. In this way, she also took India's medal count to 5 in the Paralympics 2024. However, all this was not so easy for Rubina.

Starting with Gagan Narang's academy

Apart from her hard work, former Olympic medalist and veteran Indian shooter Gagan Narang's help played a huge role in helping Rubina, who hails from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, reach here. But even before reaching this academy, Rubina had to struggle a lot. Due to weakness and crooked legs since birth, she always faced problems in walking properly. On top of that, the financial condition of the family was not good. According to the information, her father Simon was a mechanic in Jabalpur and ran a bike repair shop. Whatever income he earned from this was enough to run the house and during this time, Rubina's love for shooting was awakened.

BRONZE For India

Rubina Francis wins bronze medal in the Women's 10m Air Pistol SH1 Final with a score of 211.1#Paris2024 #Cheer4Bharat #Paralympic2024 #ParaShooting@mansukhmandviya @MIB_India @PIB_India @IndiaSports @ParalympicIndia @PCI_IN_Official @Media_SAI pic.twitter.com/iSBUZ6KNS7

— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) August 31, 2024

When the shop was broken, the academy was also left

According to Dainik Bhaskar's report, once trials for Gagan Narang's shooting academy 'Gun for Glory' were going on in Rubina's school and it was here that Rubina paid attention to this sport for the first time, after which began her story of hard work, struggle and success. After training in the academy for about a year, Rubina's game was improving but the financial condition of the family started getting more difficult because during the same time, the Municipal Corporation demolished her father's shop, due to which the crisis started getting worse.

Despite this, her father tried to meet the expenses by going door to door and repairing people's motorcycles. Even after this, it was becoming difficult to bear the expenses of the academy, so she had to leave the academy. Rubina's family also recognized her growing love and passion for shooting and tried to help her in every possible way. During this time, she got admission in the State Shooting Academy in Bhopal, where the state government bore her expenses and from here she continued to progress.

Became number 1, made a world record, now created history

Gradually, she started participating in national and international events and soon she also became the country's number-1 female shooter in para shooting. This was the time when she qualified for the 2018 Para Asian Games for the first time. After this, Rubina won many medals at the international level and then the biggest day came in 2021 when she set a world record in the Para Sport Cup held in Peru. Then Rubina set a world record of that time with a score of 238.1 points and qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics. Making her debut in Tokyo, Rubina made it to the finals but she finished 7th there. Even after this, she did not give up and now after 3 years, she fulfilled her dream of a medal in the Paris Paralympics.