Abhinav Bindra during the SSVM Transforming India Conclave at the SSVM World School, Coimbatore
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Abhinav Bindra will hold a special place in every Indian heart as a sports shooter to have brought home the first individual gold medal at the Olympics. It came in the men’s 10m air rifle event at the Beijing Games in 2008.Since then, years have rolled by but the memories are afresh. So, how did this gritty shooter make the Olympic grade? Sweat blood and toil? Abhinav answered them all during the SSVM Transforming India Conclave at the SSVM World School recently. “I had a reluctant start to the sport. Frankly speaking, I sort of hated it while at the boarding school in Dehradun,” he says.However, the day school in Chandigarh and his introduction to shooting one day by his family changed his life. “That day, I fell in love with the sport. To be somewhat successful in it, all I had to do was to stand still. No running around was required,” he adds.As a child, Bindra was fond of creating car (F3) models. He enjoyed putting all those tiny pieces to create them. “The sport of shooting is something like that. You will have to bring all things together, such as your stability, mind and heart to make that perfect shot.”
