Only one player in the history of the Olympics has featured in 10 straight Summer Games. In Paris, Georgia shooter Nino Salukvadze will join Canada Equestrian show jumper Ian Millar in this elite list and will also become the first female to do so. (Olympics Full Coverage | More Sports Stories)
However, none of this would have happened had her late father Vakhtang Salukvadze's did not make this one final wish.
"He never asked me for anything, so I think maybe it was his last wish," said the veteran, who will be competing in the 25m pistol qualifications on Friday.
Among her competition in the 25m pistol event will be India's Manu Bhaker who has already won two bronze in the ongoing Games.
Salukvadze, the flagbearer for Georgia in the ongoing Games, has already three Olympic medals, all of different colours. The first two, a gold in 25m air pistol and a silver in 10m air pistol, came way back in 1988 Seoul Games when she was representing Soviet Union. She had to wait for two decades to get her third, this time a bronze in Beijing.
After 2020 Tokyo Games, Salukvadze had thought this will be it. Nine Olympic appearances were enough for her. But not for her father.
"After Tokyo I thought I had finished, but my father, who was my coach – he died this year – told me, 'Maybe you will cry (if you don't carry on)'. It is only three years, not four years (since Tokyo 2020)," she recalled.
"I thought 'Ok, I will try'. He was a very good coach because our sport is very psychological. Now it is a competition with my mind."
"When I was told I had a quota place representing Georgia, I wanted to take this pistol and throw it into the air. Only one man has ever done this before -- a horse rider from Canada -- so maybe this is good for women's equality," she said.
