Abhinav Bindra

‘A GOLD ISN ’TJUST A DREAM ANYMORE ’

 

The fact that he’s proved that an Olympic gold is not an unattainable dream, is the biggest joy for him, says Abhinav Bindra, shooter and India’s lone Olympic gold medallist. For every Indian sportsperson now, the gold medal is achievable

 

 

Abhinav Bindra doesn’t believe that we should keep considering his gold at the Beijing Olympics earlier this year as the defining moment of India’s sporting glory. However, he does agree that it changed the perception of Indians among the rest of the world’s sporting nations, and, most importantly, it changed Indians sportspersons’ perceptions about themselves.

“It’s fantastic that we’ve won three medals – I mean, that’s one way to look at it, but I’m someone who’s aimed high all my life, and I believe that that has been crucial to my success. In a country of a billion people, we’ve won three medals. Do you think Australia – one fifth the size of India – would have been satisfied with that, or that China would? The Olympics are associated with a lot of national pride, and we must work at progressing and bettering our performance there. Sure, we’ve won a gold medal, but we must use this start to make sure that talented Indian sportspersons in all Olympic sports are given the opportunity to nurture their talent,” he says, refusing to let himself, or his country, rest on its laurels.

But he does concede, before he starts on what he thinks needs to be changed in the sporting infrastructure in India, that his medal changed things as far as the perception of India as a sporting nation goes. “When I won the medal, it created a lot of news the world over, not just in India – that India won their first ever individual gold medal. It’s always been a big thing for a nation to
do that. It has changed the perception of India. I get calls from journalists in other countries now to do stories on this – they’ve realised that Indians are world beaters too,” he says.

The most important change, however, he says is that Indians have begun to believe that too. “The main thing that has changed is the perception among the sportspersons of this country. When I was growing up, a gold medal was a faraway thing. Of course, I’ve always wanted to win, but it completely changed the dynamics and perceptions and psychological set-up of an Indian athlete. Now it’s a reality, it’s not a dream anymore. That changes the way you look at things. More and more athletes now believe that it’s a reality and it can be done. That’s a great source of joy and pride to me,” he says.

He highlights that, as far as Indian sports go, shooting is the “number 1 performing sport”, even better than cricket. “My sport has a lot of talent in India, and if we just look at sheer performance, it’s by far the number 1 sport here. We have Olympic medallists, world champions, record holders, Asian gold medallists, Commonwealth gold medals – we’ve won everything in the world. Shooting is by far is the number 1 performing sport in India, far ahead of cricket or any other, even though cricket might be more popular,” he says.
But it’s not all hunky dory, to come back to the point he made earlier. He emphasises that, apart from infrastructure and better trained coaches, Indian sportspersons also need a little more of the attitude that’s already building up among them. “Things have improved over a period of time – more money has come into sports, for instance – and I’m not being completely critical of what’s prevalent in the system. But we’re a nation that’s developing in all spheres of life, that aims high, aspires to be a superpower in times to come, and we must also aspire to be a sporting power. If we have to compete with nations like China, we must perform in the same way. In that context, things are poor. But we have won three medals at the Olympics. It’s important that from the start, right at the grassroots level, we should have the goal and vision to win more medals. Its important that you foundation be strong,” he says.

 

 

 

(Source: The Times Of India)