About Abhinav Bindra

Abhinav Bindra, born on September 28, 1982, is an Indian shooter from Zirakpur, Mohali, Punjab and is the current World and Olympic champion in the 10 m Air Rifle Event. By winning the Gold in the 10 m Air Rifle event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, he became the first Indian to win an Individual Gold Medal at an Olympic Games.

Abhinav Bindra was born in an affluent Sikh Punjabi family. His parents, Dr. A.S. Bindra and Babli Bindra, had an indoor shooting range installed at their home in Punjab. Bindra's potential talent was first spotted by his first coach Lt. Col. J.S. Dhillon and his Mental Trainer Dr. Amit Bhattacharjee.

Dr. Amit Bhattacharjee has been associated with Abhinav since he was thirteen years old and has been the pillar of strength of his performance. In fact, Dr. Bhattacharjee is the only person who has travelled with Abhinav extensively to all his major competitions such as the World Championship Zagreb, Sydney, Athens, Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Bindra was the youngest Indian participant at the 2000 Olympic Games. His current coach is Gabriela Buhlmann from Basel, Switzerland, with whom he trained in Germany before the Olympics. In the 2000 Olympics he achieved a score of 590, placing him 11th in the qualification round, and did not qualify for the finals since only the top 8 compete in the finals.

Bindra won nine medals at various international meets in 2001. In the 10 m Air Rifle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester, he won the Gold in the Pairs Event and the Silver in the Individual Event.

At the 2004 Olympic Games, he scored 597 in the qualification round and was placed third behind Qinan Zhu (599-Olympic Record) and Li Jie (598). In finals, Abhinav finished with 97.6 points, last in the field of eight and was the only player below 100 points. His subpar finals dropped him from third to seventh.

At the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, he won the Gold in the pairs event and the Bronze in the Singles event. Abhinav missed the 2006 Asian Games at Doha because of a back injury.

At the Beijing 2008 Olympics he scored qualification round 596 and final 104.5.

Awards and recognitions:

2000 - Arjuna Award

2001 - Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (India's highest sports award)

2009 - Padma Bhushan