Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra was, for a change, not his laconic self as he fired a parting shot in which revealed his plan to earn a living out of business that deals with “fitness, medical and high performance side of sports”.
Bindra, India’s lone individual Olympic gold medallist, today officially announced his retirement from shooting, saying,”It is time to move on and hand over the baton to the younger generation”.
After ruling the shooting range for more than a decade, Bindra, who will soon turn 34, hads set his sights on his new business venture.
“I am trying to earn a living. I am involved in business, trying to earn a living, put food on the plate. Well I am interested in sport but sport you know is not going to give me much money. I am involved in certain things, which is to do with fitness, doing something on the medical side, and I am also trying to do something on high performance side of sports,” Bindra told reporters during an interaction on the sidelines of his farewell function.
“The role of sports science, sport medicine is incredibly important in modern day sport. We cant do without it. I dont think the whole concept is actually strong enough in our country,” the 10-metre air rifle ace added.
At the end of his illustrious career, Bindra was asked about his vision for Indian sports.
“I would like Indian sport to grow and I think that can be only possible if we are able to invest in grassroots and set up programmes and systems for people to come in and join sport. That requires investment, that requires expertise, it also requires a lot of patience, and it also requires will,” Bindra said.
He added:”Because when you start to invest in grassroots its not something you are going to get payback or returns immediately. You might get a return in 10 to 20 years, so you need to have that ability to persist. I thing that is the only way we could develop as a country and we could at one point of time win double digit Olympic medals.”