BackOlympics: Abhinav Bindra’s last shot
Yet again, the shooter has recreated a range at his home. Yet again,he is obsessed with just one thing: winning an Olympic gold
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I have been sitting inside for over an hour; inside a space that leaves you awestruck to begin with and, then, slightly uncomfortable. Because the setting is just so grand. The vast and manicured lawns of Bindra Farms, with its many trees and extensive kitchen garden, in Zirakpur, around 15km from Chandigarh, are attended to by a dozen people at any given time.
Inside, the opulence is of a different level. The life and career of Abhinav Bindra, India’s one-in-a-billion man, are on display on the walls of the shooting range within the house—multiple photos, certificates, monograms of the world events he’s participated in, paper targets from 2004, when he shot at the Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs, US, ahead of the Athens Olympics.
The latest additions to this treasure trove are logos of the 2016 Rio Olympics. You see one stuck at the entrance to the range, one in the room that houses Bindra’s multiple shooting jackets, lined neatly on a stand, and one in the range itself, just above the targets. There is also a line of large photographs of Bindra over the years on one of the walls—2006, World champion (Zagreb); 2008, Olympic champion (Beijing); 2012, Asian champion (Doha); 2014, Commonwealth champion (Glasgow); 2016, Olympic medal wannabe (Rio de Janeiro). The last has also been the 33-year-old’s profile description on Twitter for over two years now.
Click here to see Abhinav Bindra talk about his training methods
Yes, Abhinav Bindra is obsessed about an Olympic gold medal. Again. It’s going to be his last shot at one though. Bindra will retire from the sport after his 8 August event in Rio.
“Before Beijing, you said you needed a gold medal. Before London, you said you wanted one. In Rio, is it a need or a want?" I ask him. “Oh, it’s a need," he says, with no hesitation in his voice. “It’s a complete need. I don’t have much time left in shooting, which is pretty evident from the kind of confusing statements I have been making. But I have known for a while now that the Rio Games will be the final bit of my sporting career. So yes, I would like to finish off well."
The noise of the shot, the hum of three split air conditioners and the sound of Bindra occasionally clearing his throat break the silence inside the range. It’s the same routine shot after shot after shot. Bindra loads his rifle, mounts it on the stand, moves his neck to the right, stares straight for 2 seconds, turns it left, almost in slow motion, looks down, then puts his head down on the rifle in that unnatural manner and shoots 5 seconds later.
In an hour and 15 minutes, just the way it is in a competition, Bindra fires 60 shots, describing his day’s score of 628 as “okay". “To qualify for the final, a score of 627.5 is safe," he says, logging off from the computer and turning off the printer beside his stand (the maximum qualification score is 654.0).
Not known to be someone who can be happy with anything less than absolute perfection, India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist says he’s “old and not talented", with the kind of nonchalance only he is capable of. Eight years since his historic gold-winning feat, which doesn’t matter much to him because it’s in the past, you can sense age has caught up somewhat. His hair is salt and pepper, and there’s that exhaustion after shooting for 90 minutes, standing in that awkward position that puts immense pressure on the spine.
But Bindra looks immensely fit otherwise. “I spend more time in the gym nowadays than in the range," he says. “For me to shoot right, I have to put a lot of effort to ensure that the mechanics of my body are in good shape. The body changes every day, and I need to be awake and alert in a way that the changes work for me."
So the end of his training session is almost always followed by a phone call to his physiologist. “Something’s not right with my arm," is his feedback from today’s training. “My arm has to function as one unit. Right now the wrist is on its own trip. We need to look into this."
Tell him he’s like a scientist, wanting to try out something new, know more and learn forever, even if it’s about the tiniest muscle in his body. “Well, otherwise I’m just going to be bored," comes the reply. And to keep that variety and excitement going, Bindra says he isn’t doing much of what he did before going to Beijing. “I was a different person back then. My needs were different. The format of shooting was different," he says. “Today I prepare myself in a way that’s relevant to the person I am today." For that person, in his own words, the Olympics don’t come once in four years, they come every single day.
That explains his decision to replicate the shooting range in Rio at his house. Logos apart, the lighting and colours are the way Bindra saw them at the Rio shooting range when he visited the venue for the Olympic test event in April. The numbers of the lanes, above the target, are alternately in black-white and green-white. “The background, the colours make a very big difference to your inner balance," he says. “You get a sense of what your body is feeling like in that space," he says, sounding almost monk-like. “It may help me by a decimal here and there, but in our sport that makes the difference."
You sense this is a mature man speaking. Bindra says he doesn’t analyse the scores of other shooters in his event. He’s not even aware of the current scores at world cups. “I just know I have to do my best," says Bindra. “For me to succeed, I have to shoot 60 very good qualification shots and hopefully make it to the final. That’s the first goal. And if I survive 20 shots in the final, I’m coming home with a medal." But while he continues to remain obsessed with his preparation, Bindra today is a more open and social man than he was before, during and after Beijing. He uses social media to voice his opinion, very often on Olympic sport and sportspersons in India; he will be the contingent’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Rio (he had refused in London); and he has agreed to be a goodwill ambassador for the Games, after a proposal from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
Not one to sit around passively with his newly acquired designation, Bindra sent out a motivational letter to each of India’s Rio-bound athletes, making himself available to share his Olympic experiences with them till a stipulated date. “I got some interesting responses," he says. “Like one athlete wanted to know if his personal physio could travel with him to Rio. I compiled all those requests and handed them over to the IOA to act upon."
The electricity at the shooting range has been fluctuating a bit all morning, not that it’s affected Bindra’s concentration and focus one bit. He has fired his shots relentlessly. As the lights go off once again, as the marksman is about to head out of the range, I ask him, “You want a medal really badly. What if it doesn’t happen?"
“Nothing," comes the smiling reply, with that familiar shoulder shrug. “I know I gave my best. I shall return home as a retired shooter."
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