Despite being one of the youngest in India's Olympic-bound contingent, Divyansh Singh Panwar presents the strongest case for a medal for the country. The shooter has been nothing less than a prodigy having secured various medals at the junior as well as the senior Shooting World Cup in previous years. Born in 2002, Panwar sealed an Olympic berth at the age of 16 when he won a silver medal at the 2019 ISSF World Cup in Beijing in the 10m air rifle event.
Amazingly, India's medal contender was brought to the sport only to distract and set right his 'PUBG' addiction which was disliked by Divyansh's father.
After training with his sister's equipment in his early years, Divyansh went to New Delhi where he trained under Deepak Kumar Dubey.
The stern training hours paid dividends as the teenager won two golds at the 2018 ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl. Along with India's other Olympic-bound shooter, Elavenil Valarivan, Divyansh broke the world junior record in the junior mixed team event scoring 498.6.
Having finished a disappointing 12th in the individual 10-meter air rifle event of 2019 ISSF World Cup in Delhi, he roared back to claim silver at the 2019 ISSF World Cup in Beijing in the 10m air rifle event and seal country's fourth quota spot in shooting at the Tokyo Olympics.
Divyansh and shooter Anjum Moudgil enjoyed a successful pairing in the same year as they clinched gold in the mixed team event at the World Cup in Beijing and Munich, while also claiming a bronze in Rio de Janeiro.
Divyansh repeated the feat when he won gold in the individual 10-meter air rifle event and also in the mixed team even with Croatia's Snjezana Pejcic at the 2019 World Cup Final in Putian.
In March this year, Divyansh displayed a convincing performance as he won a bronze medal in the 10m air rifle event at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi and showed signs of peaking at the right time for the Tokyo Olympics.