Abhinav Bindra’s gold win
Bindra’s name has now become closely associated with the Olympics, but he was successful in the sport before the 2008 Olympic Games. A young Bindra grew up with a shooting range on the premises of his home in Punjab, where he practiced the sport.
The youngest participant in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, Bindra burst onto the scene three years later when he medaled at the 2001 Shooting World Cup in Munich. He had participated in the Olympic Games in Sydney the year prior, but without much success.
The Olympics would be hit and miss for Bindra, who in 2004 broke the existing Games record, but despite this was unable to medal.
He had success at the Commonwealth Games to follow, however, and in 2006 qualified for the Beijing Olympics to be held in 2008 – and it was there that Bindra won India’s first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics. With that win, he also ended a nearly 30-year Olympic gold medal drought for the country.
