Abhinav Bindra hints at investing in sports science

He ruled the world of shooting for more than a decade and now after deciding to retire from the sport, he has set his sights on his new business venture. On Sunday, while talking to media persons, Abhinav Bindra revealed his future plans and also what all can be done to improve the quality of sports in India. Here are the excerpts...

How do you look back at your journey?
Abhinav Bindra: Shooting has given me everything. People still say why I am retiring, I have many more years left with me. I believe it's time to hand over the baton to the new generation. It's time to hang my boots. I take great pleasure in being an Olympic, World, Commonwealth and Asian champion in my sport. In Rio, I finished fourth in the finals but the performance gave me a great closure. It's been a fulfilling journey which taught me many life lessons.

How tough is it to win an Olympic medal?
Abhinav Bindra: It's incredibly difficult. It requires a lot of hardship. In shooting, any of the top 15 or 20 ranked shooter can win a medal on a given day. The Olympic happens once in four years and everyone tries to get that ultimate sporting glory. It is about getting all your energies together and give your best. You can't control the other part.

How's the retirement life treating you?
Abhinav Bindra: Well, it's easy. It's actually wonderful. I feel like a 13-year-old kid who has just learnt how to shoot.

What are you up to now?
Abhinav Bindra: I am trying to earn a living. I am involved in some business to have good food on my plate. I am interested in sports, but then sports alone is not going to give me much money. So, I am involved in certain things to do with health and fitness. I am also looking at medical science as well as something on the high-performance side of the sports science.

Since you talked about the sports science, how important is it for athletes?
Abhinav Bindra: The role of the sports science is incredibly important in a modern-day sport. You can't achieve success without it. I don't think the whole concept exists in our country.

What's your vision for Indian sport?
Abhinav Bindra: I would like the Indian sport to grow and that's only possible if we are able to invest in our grass-root programme and put a system in place. There's support coming in for the elite athletes, but that must also trickle down to the grassroots as well. But, all this requires huge investment, expertise, professionalism and a lot of patience and will. When you start investing in the grassroot, you won't the returns immediately. There are nations which invest heavily in grassroots.

Have you seen the change in mindset of an average Indian towards sports?
Abhinav Bindra: It's changing slowly as the younger generation today have much higher aspirations and they follow the Olympic Games with a lot more enthusiasm. The real breakthrough will come when the sports becomes a social activity in our country. When a family chooses sports over a movie on Sunday afternoon.

You are the chairman of the high-level committee formed by the NRAI to look into the Rio debacle in shooting. What are your thoughts on it?
Abhinav Bindra: It's a huge task entrusted upon me. You can always break performances in black and white. That's why I have recused myself from the whole interview process relating to athletes. I feel that it would be unfair on my part to ask questions to them as we were part of the same contingent. I am more interested in trying to set a framework and put a protocol in place which would help the federation manage and monitor athletes performances in a more systematic manner. I am keen to deliberate on how we can do better.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has constituted a task force. How do you look at this development?
Abhinav Bindra: I don't know what the mandate of the task force is or what it's supposed to do. What I know is that for the 2020 Olympics, we already know about the 70 per cent of athletes. Rest 30 per cent would come up within this period. The efforts should be to not only work with these 70 per cent, but to look beyond that pool because these athletes would no longer be there for the 2024 Olympics.

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