Abhinav Bindra etched his name in the history of Indian sport by becoming the first in the country's independent history to have won an individual gold medal in the Olympics. Bindra's historic victory in the men's 10m air rifle event at the 2008 Olympics ended up becoming a watershed moment in Indian sport and thus far, only Neeraj Chopra has managed to emulate his feat by winning the men's javelin title at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Bindra has always stated that the fact that he was born into a privileged final went a long way in helping achieve the feat. Bindra's father, Dr A.S. Bindra, heads the ₹500-crore Hi Tech group of industries. The shooting great reiterated the importance of depending on far more than just your privilege to achieve success. "Thank you for your kind words. Privilege might give you a starting line, but it's passion and hard work that takes you to the finish!" said Bindra in reply to a X user who commended him for how he used his privilege.
The handle, named “Gabbar”, also posted a video with his tweet in which Bindra at the India Today Conclave in 2021 can be seen listing out the extreme lengths he went to prepare for the 2008 Olympics.
“I went to South Africa and got my brain mapped. There were 32 areas of my brain, which is something I didn't even know about. I shot 3000 shots and after that we analysed that when I was shooting well there was a certain kind of brain activity that was happening. Through the use of science and technology we were able to get back into that mindspace,” Bindra says in the video with Neeraj Chopra sitting beside him.
{{/usCountry}}“I went to South Africa and got my brain mapped. There were 32 areas of my brain, which is something I didn't even know about. I shot 3000 shots and after that we analysed that when I was shooting well there was a certain kind of brain activity that was happening. Through the use of science and technology we were able to get back into that mindspace,” Bindra says in the video with Neeraj Chopra sitting beside him.
{{/usCountry}}“I read somewhere that yak milk is good for concentration so I imported litres and litres of that and I still have some so if anybody is interested get in touch with me. In the test event prior to the Olympics, I recorded the whole final because the sounds of that environment would be similar in Beijing,” he said. Bindra said that he would visualise the environment while floating in an isolation tank and plan the kind of thought process he would have during the Olympic final. "Neeraj bohot papad pelne pade they for this (A lot of things had to be done to do it, Neeraj)," he said.