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From 85 medals to LA 2028: Abhinav Bindra urges India to celebrate its Asian Games highs, confront the lows and ‘get back to work with urgency’
After India's Asian Games campaign, Abhinav Bindra called for focus on future improvements and preparations for the LA Olympics 2028.
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India's Asian Games 2026 campaign in Aichi-Nagoya ended on October 3 (Saturday). They had a pretty good campaign, with a rush of medals in the final few days after a slow start. In total, they won a total of 85 medals, including 21 golds, 27 silvers and 37 bronzes. This was the country's second-best ever showing in the competition after the record haul of 106 from the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou. After this impressive showing, one of India's greatest-ever sportsmen and former Olympic gold medal winning shooter Abhinav Bindra, had a special message for all those involved.
In a heartfelt post on X, Abhinav Bindra thanked everyone right from the athletes to their families and coaches, support staff, federations, SAI and the government.
"Congratulations to every Indian athlete and to Team India on the Asian Games. A Games campaign is never just the few days we see on television. It is years of early mornings, injuries, doubts, missed occasions and countless hours of work. So first and foremost, enormous respect to our athletes and also to their families who live this journey with them and make sacrifices that are rarely seen. To the coaches, support staff, federations, SAI, the Government and everyone working behind the scenes, THANK YOU !" Abhinav Bindra wrote.
Deep Dive
'LA is less than two years away'
While there have been some highs, there have also been some lows at the games like the disappointment performance of the shooting contingent at the Asian Games, a sport where a lot of medals were expected but delivered few. Abhinav Bindra said that one needs to learn from these performances, and keep building for the future, especially with the LA Olympics 2028 in sight.
"There have been some terrific breakthrough performances at these Games. Young athletes have announced themselves, others have stepped up to a new level and there have been moments that give us a lot to be excited about. There have also been disappointments. That is sport and every Games will have them. What matters now is how honestly we learn from them. High performance cannot only be about reacting when an athlete is close to a medal. We have to keep building systems that understand the athlete over several years. Systems that spot gaps early, use science and data intelligently, get coaching and competition planning right, manage training load and recovery, reduce preventable injuries and build athletes who are physically and mentally resilient when the pressure is greatest. Most importantly, the right expertise has to reach the athlete at the right stage of their career, not when it is already too late," Bindra wrote.
“LA is less than two years away. In Olympic sport that is not a long time. The athletes who will stand on the podium there are already deep into their preparation today. So this is the moment to celebrate what went well, be honest about what did not and get back to work with urgency and purpose. Congratulations again to our athletes and to everyone who stood behind them. Be proud of what has been achieved. Learn from these Games and keep moving forward. Wishing Team India everything good on the road to LA," the former Olympics gold medal winner added.
