Road to Rio: Abhinav Bindra's final Olympics gives him another shot at creating history

Name: Abhinav Bindra Age: 33 Discipline (sport): Air rifle Shooting Category: Men’s 10m air rifle Qualification: Bindra qualified after shooting a score of 122.4 in the final of the men’s 10m Air Rifle final at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich, coming 6th overall and thus qualifying via attaining an Olympic quota. Strengths: An obsessive attention to detail and strenuous training regimes are Abhinav Bindra’s biggest strengths. His steely resolve and vast experience at the Olympics will help him immensely in Rio, as he is one of the few Indian athletes who knows what it takes to win the gold medal. Past Olympic performance: 7th position in Athens Olympics 2004, Gold medal in Beijing Olympics 2008 and 16th position in London Olympics 2012. Past record (best performances): Gold medal in 10m Air rifle (pairs) in 2002 Commonwealth Games at Manchester - Gold medal in 10m air rifle (pairs) in 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne - Gold medal in 10m air rifle in 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships in Zagreb - Gold medal in 10m air rifle in 2008 Beijing Olympics - Gold medal in 10m air rifle (pairs) in 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi - Gold medal in 10m air rifle in 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow [caption id=“attachment_2827782” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Olympics gold medalist Abhinav Bindra. Reuters[/caption] “Shooting as a sport is all about perfection. The only way you can achieve success is by eliminating all the variables. Some you foresee and some you just cannot. In a sport like shooting, winning doesn’t come easily. You have to suffer. You can’t go in thinking you will return with a medal. It just doesn’t work that way,” said Bindra in his book My Olympic Journey.  Obsessive is a word that can be used to describe India’s only gold medalist. In order to prepare for the Olympic Games, Bindra had an exact replica of the Rio shooting range made in Chandigarh. “The background, the colours make a very very big difference to your inner balance,” Bindra said. “For perception, how the body is in space, the colours make a difference. The idea is to try and get used to it. It might help me by a decimal here and there, but in sport that’s the difference,” the Beijing gold medalist explained in his autobiography_._ For Bindra though, an important bit of history that he has set in his sights is to repeat his gold medal exploits in Rio this year. No shooter in the 10m rifle category has ever won an Olympic gold medal twice. Bindra qualified after shooting a score of 122.4 in the final of the men’s 10m Air Rifle final at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich, coming 6th overall and thus qualifying via attaining an Olympic quota. One of his main rivals for the Rio Olympics gold, Zu Qinan of China won gold in the very same event with a score of 206 points. Will the veteran manage to create history at Rio? It’s tough to say as most scores differ on a decimal basis and something as simple as a light breeze can make all the difference in the world. But if you look at Bindra’s previous record of four Commonwealth Games gold medals, one world championship gold medal and one Olympic gold medal, it would be a fool’s errand to bet against India’s premier marksman. At 33-years-old, Bindra has flirted with the idea of retirement but is willing to put his best for one last shot at glory. There is a feeling that there is a final frontier left to conquer for Bindra. As the Indian Rio Olympic ambassador and flag bearer, Bindra is also carrying an added weight of responsibility in Brazil. He leads an impressive 12-member shooting contingent , which is carrying the nation’s hopes of winning multiple medals. While there is an air of finality around Abhinav Bindra’s participation at the Olympics, the air is also thick with anticipation for his last legitimate crack at another medal at the biggest sporting extravaganza.