Bindra, will bear the Indian contingent’s flag at the opening ceremony on the 5th of August. He also is one of the four goodwill ambassadors assigned by the Indian Olympic Association. (PTI)Abhinav Bindra is the one; the only one to win an individual Olympic gold medal for India. Bejing 2008, it was. And if things go his way, Rio 2016 would just be about repeating history. And Bindra walks calmly into Brazil in a week as prepared as he can be. He knows how it is done. He has done it before. He knows he can fail. Because, he has failed before. Rio will be anyway be his swansong.
After a career that has spanned well over a decade, Bindra has more accolades to show, than most shooters in the world, more than anyone in India, by a mile. He is the first and remains to be the only one to hold Olympic and world titles at the same time. He followed the 2006 Zagreb – ISSF World Shooting Championships -10m Air Rifle with a gold in the 2008- Bejing Olympics. Starting at the Commonwealth Games of 1998 as the youngest participant, Bindra went on to win golds in the following four games. (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014).
Bindra, will bear the Indian contingent’s flag at the opening ceremony on the 5th of August. He also is one of the four goodwill ambassadors assigned by the Indian Olympic Association.
Now, those who have known him or watched him aim, would never assume him to be sitting around doing nothing. He is doing his part as an ambassador while keeping his focus intact on the bull’s eye in Rio. If one has been in a shooting range, and knows Bindra’s records, he surely understands how good, Bindra is focussing at.