- Source: Raiza Dhillon
Raiza Dhillon (born 20 April 2004) is an Indian sport shooter. She secured an Olympic quota berth for the 2024 Summer Olympics in the women's skeet event by winning a gold medal at the Asian Shotgun Championships, an Asian Olympic qualifier event on 20 January 2024 at Kuwait City. She became the first Indian woman to potentially qualify for an Olympic skeet event. It also brought the Indian Olympic quota count to 19. The quota berth won by a shooter is a berth for the country and the Federation, which can nominate any shooter for Olympics, as per set criteria.
Early life
Dhillon hails from Shamgarh, Karnal District, Haryana. Her parents Ravijit Singh Dhillon and Gul Dhillon encouraged her to take up the sport at an early age. Their family shifted their base to Panchkula where her mother, Gul, introduced her to sports like tennis and swimming and also into Bharatnatyam. However, the youngster chose to take up shooting at the age of 12, and wanted to shoot with big guns which sight she is quite familiar with after watching the 20-gun stock of her great grandfather, Jagirdar Gurinder Singh Dhillon. She attended coaching camps at the Gagan Narang Shooting Academy in Pune but settled with coach Amrinder Singh Cheema, who is her father's friend, after selecting skeet as her pet event.
Career
Dhillon started her international career representing Junior India at the World Championships in Lima in 2021. She took part in individual, team and mixed team events. In 2022, she represented India in all the three skeet events again in the World Championships at Osijek, Croatia, and was part of the team event where India won a gold. In 2023, she represented India again in the skeet junior women mixed and individual events at World Championships in Changwon, Korea and won a silver medal in the individual skeet event. In March 2023, she also took part in the skeet women's individual and mixed team events in the senior category for India at Larnaca, Cyprus. In 2023, she participated in the Junior World Cup event at Suhl, Germany, in the same events.
She joined the Sports Authority of India'a (SAI) National Centre of Excellence in 2023.