.jpg) Bindra in 2011 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Indian |
| Born | (1982-09-28)28 September 1982 (age 42)[1] Dehradun,Uttarakhand, India |
| Education | Bachelor of Business Administration |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations | |
| Height | 173 cm (5 ft 8 in) |
| Weight | 65.5 kg (144 lb) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | India |
| Branch/service |  Indian Army |
| Years of service | 2011–present |
| Rank |  Honorary Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit |  Territorial Army |
| Sport | |
| Country | India |
| Sport | Shooting |
Medal record | |
Abhinav Bindra (born 28 September 1982) is an Indian formersport shooter and a businessman.[1] He is anOlympic gold medalist as well as the first and one of only two Indians to win an individual Olympic gold medal.[2][3] Bindra is also the first Indian to have held concurrently the World and Olympic titles for the men's 10-meter air rifle event, having earned those honors at the2008 Summer Olympics and the2006 World Championships. Bindra has won seven medals at theCommonwealth Games and three medals at theAsian Games.
With more than 150 medals in his 22-year career, he is the recipient of thePadma Bhushan from the Government of India[4] and is one of the top influencers of sport policy in the country.[5]
At the2016 Summer Olympics inRio de Janeiro, Bindra finished fourth in the finals of the 10-meter air rifle event. He also served as a goodwill ambassador for the Rio 2016 Olympics Indian contingent, having been appointed to that post by theIndian Olympics Association (IOA). On 5 September 2016, he announced his retirement.[6] Bindra's primary outreach to Indian sports is through the Abhinav Bindra Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to integratesports, science, and technology into Indian sports and encourage high-performance physical training.[7]
In 2018, Abhinav was bestowed with the prestigious Blue Cross, theISSF's highest honor.[8][9] He is also currently a member of theIOC Athletes' Commission.[10] Bindra carried theOlympic torch at the2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.[11]
Bindra was born inDehradun inUttarakhand, to aPunjabiSikhKhatri family.[12][13] He was educated atthe Doon School inDehradun and atSt. Stephen's School inChandigarh.[14] He studiedbusiness administration at theUniversity of Colorado Boulder.[15] Determined to train with the best possible facilities, which were then not available in India, he would train for prolonged periods in Germany,[16] where he was coached byGaby Buhlmann.[17]
At the age of 15, Bindra was the youngest participant in the1998 Commonwealth Games. He was also the youngest Indian participant at the2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. At the 2000 Olympics, he achieved a score of 590, placing him 11th in the qualification round. With that score, he was not able to qualify for the finals. He was also honored with theArjuna Award that year.[18]
In international competitions, he won his first medal, a bronze, at the 2001 Munich World Cup with a new junior world record score of 597/600. He won six gold medals at various international meets that year and received the prestigiousMajor Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, India's highest sports award. In the air rifle event at the2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, he finished with gold in the pairs event and silver in the individual event.[19]
In the2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, he broke the previous Olympic record but did not win a medal. He scored 597 in the qualification round and placed third, preceded byQinan Zhu (599, a new Olympic record) andLi Jie (598). In the finals, Abhinav finished with 97.6 points, last in the field of eight; he was the only player with less than 100 points and dropped to the seventh position.[20]
After these successes, a severe back injury incapacitated him and he was unable to lift a rifle for a year, interrupting his preparation for the2008 Summer Olympics. Bindra returned to compete and won the title at the2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships with a score of 699.1, qualifying him for the 2008 Summer Olympics.[21]
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Bindra won the men's 10-meter air rifle event, shooting a total of 700.5.[17] He scored 596 in the qualifying round, finishing fourth, and outscored all other shooters in the finals with a round of 104.5. In the finals, he started with a shot of 10.7, and all others never dipped below 10.0.[22] Bindra was tied withHenri Häkkinen heading into his final shot. Bindra scored his highest of the finals – 10.8 – while Hakkinen shot 9.7 to settle for the bronze medal.[23][2]
At the2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, Bindra was honored as the national flag-bearer at the opening ceremony. He also was given the honor of taking the athletes' oath on behalf of the 6,700 participants from 71 countries and territories. Bindra, along withGagan Narang, shot in unison to set a games record of 1,193 points in the 10-meter air rifle pairs event for men to win India's inaugural gold medal at the 19th Commonwealth Games. He brought home a silver medal in the individual event.[24]
Bindra won the gold medal in the men's 10-meter air rifle event at the 12thAsian Shooting Championships, held inDoha, Qatar.[25] He lost in the qualification round at the2012 Summer Olympics in London, finishing in the 16th place with a score of 594. In the2014 Commonwealth Games inGlasgow, Bindra again won gold in the men's 10-meter air rifle singles event.[26] At the2016 Summer Olympics inRio de Janeiro, he came fourth in the men's 10-meter air rifle singles event after losing a shoot-off for the top 3 toSerhiy Kulish, who eventually won the silver medal.[27]
Bindra has a bachelor's degree in business administration from theUniversity of Colorado.[15] Bindra is the CEO of Abhinav Futuristics Private Limited, an organization that works to bring science and technology into the sport and healthcare sectors. With ABTP, a group of sports science and advanced physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) centers, the organization has served more than 5,000 athletes and medical patients. Under the Abhinav Bindra Foundation, a non-profit initiative, athletes are provided access to the latest sports technology and high-performance physical training for free.[16] Many athletes from sports such asswimming,badminton,boxing, andpara-athletics have benefited from the foundation's various programs. In 2020, he launched theAbhinav Bindra Sports Medicine and Research Institute atBhubaneswar with the mission of bringing Global Best Practice to the Indian Healthcare and Sports Medicine Sector.[28]
Since his retirement, Bindra has been involved with the TOP Scheme, one of India's most significant policies for athlete development. He was a member of the ISSF Athlete Committee from 2010 to 2020, serving asChair from 2014, and was appointed to the IOC Athlete Commission in 2018.[29][30] In these roles he has worked for the development of athletes through mental health, financial stability, and entrepreneurship initiatives. In 2017 whilst Chair of the ISSF Athletes Committee, Bindra was criticised for approving the removal of three events from the Olympic programme in what was described as an undemocratic and un-transparent manner.[31] Bindra's net worth is estimated to be around $10 million.[32]
| Year | Event | Rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 2000 Sydney | 10 m air rifle | 11 | 590 |
 2004 Athens | 10 m air rifle | 7 | 694.6 |
 2008 Beijing | 10 m air rifle |  | 700.5 |
 2012 London | 10 m air rifle | 16 | 594 |
 2016 Rio de Janeiro | 10 m air rifle | 4 | 625.7/163.8 |
Harper Sport published Bindra's autobiography,A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold, which he co-authored with sportswriterRohit Brijnath in October 2011. It was formally released by Union Sports MinisterAjay Maken on 27 October 2011, at a function in New Delhi.[33] The book received positive reviews,[34][35] andHarshvardhan Kapoor has been cast for the lead role in a future biopic based on the memoir.[36]
Bindra belongs to asikh family and a descendant of legendary warriorHari Singh Nalwa, who was commander-in-chief of the Sikh army during MaharajaRanjit Singh's reign.[37]
Awards for 2008 Olympic gold medal
Three-time Olympic medallist Rajmond Debevec has criticized the ISSF and its athletes committee headed by Abhinav Bindra, for scrapping three existing events from the 2020 Olympics, arguing that the process was non-transparent, and that gender equality could have been achieved using a more democratic decision-making process.
| Olympic Games | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Flagbearer for India Rio de Janeiro 2016 | Succeeded by |
Olympic champions in men's10 metre air rifle | |
|---|---|
 Gold medalists |
|
|---|---|
 Silver medalists | |
 Bronze medalists | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
