‘When Olympics come we are not preparing for success, we are preparing for failure… that needs to change’

•And I think even you would wish that more people are able to do that in future.

Absolutely. I think it’s the first, but I think it should just be the beginning and I really hope that we win many many more gold medals in the future. So it’s just a start.

•Somebody has to pick the door open, isn’t it…and then the belief comes in.

Well I really hope so. For me, this medal is for all my fellow athletes. I really believe in the Indian athlete and it should just give them the confidence that we can do it. I m hopeful, we’ll have some more medals in Beijing, and definitely in the future we should win many more.

•But, tell me when Indian participants go to the big meets, usually we console ourselves by saying that we believe in the Olympic motto: playing is the thing, winning or losing doesn’t matter. We’ve become a country of good losers.

I don’t think that’s the attitude among the athletes. I really believe that the Indian athlete is very motivated and wants to win, and I think the Indian athlete has all what it takes to win. Sometimes in India, when the Olympics come, we are not preparing for success, we are preparing for failure. It’s a matter of attitude, it’s a matter of thinking, and that needs to change.

•In fact, if I may say so, just your gold medal did change that. All these boxers, Saina Nehwal, they’ve all got to quarterfinals that Indians never got to, and getting into a quarterfinal in the Olympics puts you in the gold medal contention, say at the Asian level, which wasn’t the case earlier. So you, in your own way, have made a difference.

Absolutely, our boxers have done exceedingly well. Akhil Kumar did amazingly well…

•Yeah, but the feeling that so and so, just like me, my age has got the gold medal so we can, Indians can do it.

Absolutely, It’s a start and there’s no doubt that we are right there. I mean there’s no difference between us and anyone, anywhere else.

•So when you say that in the past it looked like we were preparing for failure, give me some examples, you know the mindset.

It’s got a lot to do with the set up, I think. I want to emphasise that it’s in the set up of the whole sports infrastructure in India. I mean people responsible for running the sport, sometimes they themselves don’t believe that the athlete is going to win. Sometimes the attitude is that the athlete is just going for a vacation or something.

•Well, at least the official is going for a vacation, so get the athlete to qualify and your battle is won.

Absolutely. That needs to change. The officials must be equally motivated like the athlete and must have the fire in them that we got to get our boys and girls winning.

•I was reading some old interviews of yours. In fact, going back to 2001 when, at the age of 18, you were fretting about the fact that we were short of coaches in shooting.

Absolutely, we do not have a good coaching structure in India, and it’s very unfortunate. By saying that I don’t mean that our coaches are not good. It’s just that they need to learn and adapt to the new techniques. They need to be trained as well and that’s very important. If they are trained to new technology and the new way of sport, we would be equally good, there’s no doubt.

•At one point, we let a coach go because we couldn’t pay him, maybe, 500 dollars more per month — a Hungarian coach.

Yeah that’s right. That was unfortunate and it had a bad impact on Indian shooting for a few years.

•But tell me something, all of us, we are a country of 100 crore cricket coaches….

I’m also one of them.

•Very little is known about your sport. Tell me about it, you know, what is so different with shooting and your particular event?

My particular event is the 10m Air Rifle event. The distance it’s shot from is 10 metres. We are looking to get a 10 on the target. The size of the 10 is .5mm. The qualification competition comprises 60 competition shots, shot in a timeframe of one hour and 45 minutes. The top eight athletes from the qualification round enter the final round. The final round is the deciding factor. It’s where it counts. The final round is scored in decimal points.

•And the bull’s-eye is not a 100 per cent, it’s like a 109 per cent.

Yeah, the maximum you can get is a 10.9.

•On 10?

Yes that’s the centre. Then it’s scored in decimals, the final score is added to the qualification and at the end of 10 shots, whoever has the maximum is the winner.

•Tell us about the loneliness of the shooter. We’ve all heard the loneliness of a long-distance runner.

Yes, it’s a quiet sport. It’s almost meditative because you are competing against your own self and that’s it. You’re competing against others, but the performance depends on the competition against your own self. So it’s a quiet and lonely battle.

•And you don’t know what others are doing, because on one command all of you are almost shooting together.

Yes. You get to know after the shot is fired, but you shoot against yourself.

•So tell me what goes on at the deck point. Who are you talking to when you are by yourself at the range?

When you are competing, there are so many doubts and you are all the time fighting against yourself. A part of you just doesn’t want to believe that it’s gonna happen and, you’re just trying to be quiet and that chatter going on in your head, and you are trying to shut up and focus on the job at hand.

•What’s the most distracting thing you’ve heard in your head – Abhinav Bindra talking to Abhinav Bindra or distracting Abhinav Bindra?

Well, at the Olympics, I was well-behaved. I was quite good, but there have been occasions when I didn’t believe in myself. I thought it is not gonna happen. But those are distractions and one just needs to fight against those and try to do your best.

•So tell us about a few such moments, not just at the Olympics, but in your shooting life, in your shooting career, when you either felt distracted or you had to fight a distraction. Because it’s a self-motivating sport, I mean all sports are self motivating but there’s much more – no audience cheering you, no coach saying well done, nobody shouting commands at you.

True. There’ve been a lot of disappointing moments where I’ve distracted from my goal, my goal of winning the Olympics and there were moments when I wanted to quit. There were moments of frustration and there were hard times. But those were all distractions and after a few days, I said let’s try again and let’s give it another shot….

•Let’s give it another shot, literally, in your case. But you know, on the range, what’s the greatest self-doubt that assailed you, ever? That Abhinav Bindra you can’t do it, Abhinav Bindra why are you doing it, what’s the point?

Oh yeah. That happens all the time. There are doubts all the time. It’s just natural, it’s human.

•Was one of those moments Athens, where you got to the finals?

It was. I’d broken an Olympic record in Athens. I mean in the final, I couldn’t shoot well for no fault of mine. There was a technical problem with the shooting range.

•I believe you had a slippery ground?

Yeah, a wobbly floor. It was just frustrating because you’d put so much effort and it didn’t happen. It was a golden chance to win, and it didn’t happen, and then you have to start all over form the scratch.

•Because in shooting, margins are very small…

There are no margins. To win you have to be perfect on that day.

•No margins. Yeah, second or third point of decimal between the winner and the number two, right? And in shooting, unlike most of the other sports, there’s no chance for recovery… But in shooting, there are no comebacks as they say.

Absolutely, you have to be perfect on that day, and it leads to a perfectionist attitude, which, sometimes, is very hard to cope with… it just becomes maddening sometimes.

•Maddening, how? Does it keep you awake at night?

Absolutely. Sometimes I am thinking: ’Oh my little toe nail was not on the right spot. Maybe, if I get that right, I could improve,’ and stuff like that. I’ve dreamt and lived shooting for the last 12 years. That’s all I’ve done, that’s all I’ve thought.

•So, what happens? When you do badly someday, does it nag you? Do you take your failures home? You take your failure to your bed?

It’s disappointing. It’s hard to get over them. But then, over the years I’ve learnt to take it (the failures) in my stride. Winning and losing is part of the game and I don’t get much affected now by the winning aspect and the failure aspect as long as I give it my best shot and fight it hard to the last bit.

•How are shooters different from other sportsmen? Our shooters, do they tend to be introverted?

I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I mean rifle and pistol shooters are quiet individuals, you go into the shotgun world, it is a completely different world. They’re far more aggressive individuals…

•They are more boisterous, why is it so?

Absolutely. It’s the nature of the sport. It’s more action-oriented …

•Although you know, even your sport does need expensive facilities. You are fortunate, I mean, you’ve this wonderful range in your house on the outskirts of Chandigarh.

Yes, it’s an expensive sport. You need the infrastructure. You need a good range to be able to effectively train, but we have many ranges coming up.

•And more will come up, now that we’ve tasted success.

Yeah. I really hope so. India is full of talented shooters. We have, I think the most amount of shooting talent than anywhere in the world. It’s a matter of nurturing it.

•Why do you say so?

I mean I’ve trained all over the world. I’ve trained in the US, I’ve trained in Europe a lot, and I’ve seen our shooters. Our shooters, without much coaching, but sheer talent and hard work reach world standards. That proves that we have a lot of talent in the sport.

•What you are saying is very right, because I think we have more shooters in top-16 than we have in any other sport in the world. Once you get into the top-16, (from there to the) top the gap is very narrow.

Absolutely. I mean we have so many champions in shooting. Every shooter who went to Beijing had a realistic chance of a medal. Unfortunately, we could win only one. But every shooter on his/her day had the possibility to win.

•Abhinav, a little bit about yourself. How did you take to shooting? Usually people follow family traditions, and in your family there was no tradition of shooting. Except, every Punjabi dreams of a gun in his hands.

I took it up as a pastime, as a hobby. I was looking for something to do. A family friend introduced me to the sport, and it’s a very very addictive sport. Since the day I went for competitive training, I’ve been hooked on to it.

•You were unhappy with the school (Doon School)?

I just couldn’t cope. The school was great. If I’ve to go back now, I’ll probably love it. But at that time, I was just not ready. I dropped out and moved to Chandigarh and went to St Stephens school, a day school, and looked for a pastime, a hobby and took to shooting.

•And your mom tells me you used to go chasing after birds with an air gun, sometimes.

I did. I mean I lived on a farm in Dehradun and I used to shoot bottles even. I’d a lot of guns as toys.

•She also told me a story of how, I think, your father caught you doing something more adventurous – placing balloons on your maid’s head.

They all keep reminding me of that. I don’t remember it.

•You bet, you’ll never admit to that. I believe your dad caught you shooting balloons on your maid’s head, and the maid said, ’I m fine, I don’t feel scared.’

She was brave.

•So then what happened? You had a family friend who saw the talent in you.

Yes. I was looking for a pastime and he introduced me to my first coach, Col Dhillon. I went to his house and needed a gun. Ten days later, my father and my aunt from the US got me an air rifle and there I was.

•And air rifle is easy to procure.

Yeah it is not a firearm, so we don’t need a licence for it.

•And then you got into competition. So you’d say the talent was more inside you.

Probably, because it was just by accident that I took it up. There was no family tradition. I’d no idea what shooting was.

•So by the age of 18, you had already beaten the world champion then, isn’t it? And the Olympic champion?

Yeah, that’s right. Since Day One, I was addicted to it. I really don’t know why, but I was just addicted to it. I started training hard right form the beginning – when I was 13, I would practice for hours everyday.

•Tell us how training for shooting is different from other sports? You know I keep hearing about breathing control, muscle tension, what’s all that?

It’s a combination of lot of small things. You have a lot of variables. It’s a very technical sport, it’s a very mentally challenging sport, but it’s also a very physically demanding sport, it doesn’t look that way, but it is. Primarily because you need a low heart rate. Because, in a stress situation, your heart is beating 160 beats a minute, and when that happens, you don’t have a chance, because your rifle is going to shake a lot. You need to have a good cardio system, so you need to run a lot to reduce your heart rate.

•So you need to be very fit to shoot.

There a lot of fit shooters, there are also a lot of unfit shooters. But it’s something you want to work on to improve performance.

•How do you train your mind? Because all sports need mind control but this is…you see, it’s a little like photography. Everybody sees the same picture, but great photographers are the ones who find that one microsecond, one moment.

I have done a lot of mental training over the past few years. I’ve tried every technique, I’ve had mental coaches, I’ve a mental coach in India as well. At the end of the day, in the heat of the moment the thing that worked for me was self-belief that I can do it. The main thing was that you needed courage and determination at that moment because when you are going for that last shot, you know you are going for the gold medal, you are bound to be scared, but you need to find the courage and dig deep to be able to do it.

•And you feel the weight of expectations?

Absolutely, in India we tend to have a lot of expectations, but I’ve learnt to deal with it.

•But would it help if there were a couple more gold medal winners from India, would it reduce the pressure?

Absolutely. The more we get used to winning, the less the mystery to the whole situation would be.

•So tell me, Abinav, I know your parents have made a great contribution… besides the fact that unlike most parents they haven’t sat on your head, saying, ’but you must also top your class always’. Right?

That’s right, my parents gave every possible support.

•And the coach (Gaby Buehlmann of Switzerland) you’ve had for sometime now. What about her?

I’ve been working with her since 2000, and I owe all my technical abilities to her. She has a lot of knowledge.

•What are the couple of most important things she told you?

Just before the final in Beijing, I made the final and was a little bit nervous and naturally so, the memories of Athens came back. The only thing she told me was to be aggressive and to go for it, and I just went for it. I didn’t care for anything.

•So what else has she taught you? Did she tell you, ‘look you are a world champion’?

She had been preparing me for the victory. She told me, after you shoot the final, the victory ceremony will happen, then you have dope test and you have a press conference. I mean it didn’t strike me there at that moment because I was so concentrated, but looking back she was preparing me for the success.

•You know because the bad thing about bad memories is they tend to keep coming back, sometime at the worst possible time. But the good thing about good memories is that they last forever. And Abhinav in your case, you’ve created memories that’ll last forever not just for your self or your family, but for all of India, and you’re only 26 so there’s a lot more to do. I know you’ve said, it’s like being on the top of a mountain and being lonely, but there are many more mountains to climb, so keep on doing better and better and I would like to believe and I would like you to convince the people of India to believe that there’s a life beyond 10.8 out of 10. Many congratulations, and thank you very much.

Thanks

Transcript prepared by Daksh Panwar.