India, Sept. 22 -- A ir rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan was a teenager at the 2018 Asian games in Jakarta, Indonesia, when she was left heartbroken after her rifle jammed mid-competition. She finished 14th and did not advance to the final. Fast forward eight years, and on Sunday, she won India a silver in the women's 10m air rifle team event at the 2026 Asian Games in Japan, and hours later, added a silver in the individual event. For the 27-year-old Arjuna Awardee, what changed between Jakarta and Aichi-Nagoya went beyond shooting. "To win an Asian Games medal was a dream etched in my heart. I felt confident of winning, and that confidence came from the changes I have made to my life in the last few years," she shares. Between the two Games, she has competed at two Olympics and won multiple World Cup medals, but it was a conscious shift in mindset that made the biggest difference. "I now enjoy the sport every single day. Just getting to play it makes me happy, so I try not to overcomplicate things," she says, adding, "Shooting as a sport isolates you, so I started making an effort to be more in touch with the outside world. I started going out with my friends; I learnt crocheting just to add more shades to my life." The shift, she says, began after a disappointing Paris Olympics in 2024. An interaction with ace shooter and Olympic medallist Gagan Narang, at whose academy she trains, gave her a new perspective. "Till Paris, it was more about making it to the team and winning. Then one day, Gagan sir told me, 'Ela, trust your process and believe in yourself.' That struck me. That's when I started being more social and doing more things." That calm nearly earned her gold in Sunday's individual final, where she finished just 0.6 points behind Japan's Hinata Taichi. She is candid about what happened. "I got a little relaxed, and my focus might have faltered. But I have learnt to stay in the moment, learn from mistakes and not let anything fluster you," she ends....