Abhinav Bindra

Abhinav Bindra is a well-known  Indian shooter. He was the first sportsperson to win an individual gold medal in the Olympics in 2008. He was born on 28 September 1982 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. He studied at The Doon School, Dehradun, and St. Stephen’s School, Chandigarh, and completed graduation in business administration from the University of Colorado Boulder, US. He was trained in Germany by coach Gaby Buhlman.

Bindra becomes the youngest participant in the 1998 Commonwealth Games at the age of 15. At the age of 18, he participated in the 2000 Summer Olympics. He won his first gold medal in the 2001 Munich World Cup with a world record score of 597/600. In the 2002 Commonwealth Games, he won gold in pairs and silver in individual events. During the preparation for the 2008 Olympics, he got injured but returned with high spirits and won the title of the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championship. His most promising win was a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics with a record 700.5 points.

In the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he got the honor of National flag bearer and took the oath for 6,700 participants from 71 countries and territories. In addition to his achievements, he won gold (10m Air rifle) in the Asian Shooting Championship in Doha, Qatar, and gold( 10 m Air Rifle) in the 2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow. Bindra announced his retirement on 5 September 2016. He is also a businessman. He has founded Abhinav Futuristic Private Limited Company. Its mission is to incorporate science and technology in the sports and healthcare sectors.

It is a nonprofit initiative that provides the latest sports technology and physical training free of cost for athletes. It has served 5000 athletes and patients. Many athletes from different sports like swimming, boxing, badminton, and para-athletes have benefitted from this program. In 2020, he also launched Abhinav Bindra Sports, Medicine, and Research Institute at Bhubaneswar, which offers research-based education with the global standard of healthcare and sports industry.

In addition to this, from 2010 to 2020, he was a member of the ISSF Athlete Committee. He also got a post in the Indian Olympics Association 2018. in October 2011, Bindra’s Autobiography, A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold, was published by Harper Sport. the book was co-authored with sportsperson Rohit Brijnath.

Bindra was honored with various awards for his contribution to sports. He received the Arjuna Award in 2000, the Major Dhyan Chand Award in 2002, Padma Bhushan in 2009, the Blue Cross highest shooting honor by the International Shooting Federation 2018, a Doctorate( DPhil) from Kaziranga University and Doctorate ( DLitt) from SRM University.