My Olympics Journey: 'My greatest success was also my greatest life crisis,' Abhinav Bindra recalls Beijing gold
'Sport is much, much more than the competition that happens. The real power of sport lies in what it can do to a community, what it can do to change a person's life, the values that it teaches you. The biggest learning from sport is that it teaches you to accept failures,' says Abhinav Bindra.
Abhinav Bindra is India's first, and only individual gold medallist. He achieved the feat in 10-metre air rifle event in Beijing in 2008, beating a world-class field on his last competition shot. He spoke to Shantanu Srivastava on his Olympics journey.
At the onset, I'd like to make an admission. I was extremely fortunate to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. What does it mean to me? Is it just a piece of metal hanging on a wall in my house? I don't even look at it. But it has another meaning too. It reminds me of my sporting career, the relationships I was able to build, the memories I forged.
Olympics – and sport, in general – allowed me to build a strong relationship with my mum and my dad. My mother took me to a non-descript sports hostel in Germany when I was 12. It was cold, the food was bad, but the big plus was that I was able to build a bond with my mother. Similarly, with my father. He told me all about guns, and I always looked up to him.
