Abhinav Bindra exemplified this when he took gold in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, becoming India’s first-ever solo gold medalist. Until now.
Abhinav Bindra, who began shooting as a young boy and was enthralled by the sport, competed in the first Olympics in Sydney when he was 15 years old. Of course, he didn’t win, but the experience had a profound impact on him. Every step he took after that just got him nearer to his mission and desire of winning gold at the Olympics.
“Obsession is a child of ambition”, would say Abhinav Bindra as he kept trying hard. Here are the unbelievably craziest things he did to fetch gold at the Olympics.
1. Abhinav Bindra, who competed in the Olympics twice before Beijing, in Sydney and Athens, was upset by his loss in the 2004 Athens finals, where he confessed to shooting ten of his worst shots ever. Bindra made the journey to South Africa to scan his brain to alleviate tension after becoming preoccupied with every tiny feature of his body after figuring out it was the broken tile he was resting on that was affecting his performances.
2. Abhinav Bindra isn’t the sort of man to leave stuff to fate. He sought to have complete mastery over his thoughts, body, and even his equipment, which had to be flawless. Bindra would even weigh his pellets and inspect them with a magnifying glass for scratches. He would immediately discard any pellets that had a scratch or bulge.
Abhinav also discovered that he did better with Chinese pellets, so he ordered 10,000 of them from a buddy in Hong Kong when they were unavailable in India.
3. While most of Bindra’s other interests stemmed from mathematical and/or scientific conclusions, this one appears to have arisen from rumor, but Bindra was never one to surrender.
On the off that Yak milk could be a focus-enhancer, Abhinav Bindra bought and began ingesting a lot of yak milk throughout the crucial years of his career.
4. Uwe Riesterer, Abhinav Bindra’s coach, chose to enroll Abhinav for commando training just days before he was scheduled to compete in the Beijing Olympics. Although it wasn’t typical for a shooter to practice like a commando, Bindra’s coach saw it as the ideal technique to teach him how to cope with pressure without worrying.
“I started climbing and halfway up realized I couldn’t go any further,” Abhinav Bindra recounted. However, this was the very purpose of undertaking the work in the first place. Fear was something I had to overcome, fear that could have gripped me at an Olympic final.”
5. Bindra got consumed with his desire to win after his setback in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and tried to analyze and overcome every potential outcome that may arise.
He would frequently get into his shooting posture in a completely dark room, with his tools and attire, and train there for increased focus.
6. Abhinav Bindra would sometimes lease wedding venues in Chandigarh to practice in after realizing that the shooting hall in Beijing would be far larger than where he had been practicing all along.
To perfect things, he’d put up a variety in the hall to simulate the conditions he’d be shooting in at Beijing. During his mock finals, Bindra would even take a shot from every angle while still wearing his gear. As per Mensxp
