Abhinav Bindra has been a part of the Indian contingent for five Olympic events starting from Sydney in 2000. On Sunday, the ace shooter picked the recently concluded Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as his favourite. Bindra, India’s first gold medallist in an individual Olympic event spoke about how he prepared for the competition to the best of his ability.
He also said that he gave everything on the day and was satisfied with his effort. As reported in the Times of India, Bindra said, "Out of my five Olympics appearances, my absolute favourite is Rio because I gave everything to it in terms of preparation. I gave it all what I had on that day. I prepared to the best of my ability.
“In the last one month, I thought hard if I could have done anything different in my preparation. But there is nothing I could have done differently other than shoot a better shot in the shoot-off. That gives me a lot of satisfaction.”
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Reiterating that there would not be any rethinking on his decision to retire, Bindra said that he had no regrets and it was the right time to bring the curtains down on his colourful career. “That has given me closure to my sports career because I've no regrets. It's a fine feeling,” quipped the 33-year-old.
When inquired on why he chose the Rio 2016 Olympics over the Beijing Olympics in 2008, where he shot to glory and won the gold medal he did not disclose much saying that the suspense would only be broken in his upcoming book. "I had several challenges during my last Olympic journey which I would be updating in my book.So I don't want to talk too much about the exact challenges I faced."
Recalling how his life altered post the disheartening Athens Olympics in 2004. He said that he learnt a lot of lessons from the defeat in Athens which later helped him in the Beijing Games.
"Athens changed it all for me at age of 21. That was when I was in the best form of my career. I had broken the Olympic record and reached the final in third place. Of all my Olympics, it was my easiest chance to win a medal. In the final I dropped to the seventh place which was very heartbreaking as I thought I had shot well.
"Later I realised that the tile where I was standing on position No. 3 was loose. It was like a standing on a trampoline. But what it taught me was the detachment from the result. So when I got to Beijing I was very process driven and wanted to give my best in every single shot."
