A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold

by Abhinav Bindra

performance’—she defended me furiously: ‘How many Indians come so far? You have no idea how hard he worked.’ The morning after my failure, I went to watch Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore at the trap range because I felt he had the best chance of a medal He was inspiring, winning the silver, breaking the spell of bronze that went back to wrestler K. D. Jadhav in 1952, tennis ace Leander Paes in 1996 and weightlifter Karnam Malleswari in 2000. At his press conference, Rathore, responding to a query, said I would be a world champion one day. And Sharda Ugra, the fine writer who was then with India Today, was forceful in telling me my time would come, my gold would arrive. Later, some gentle volunteers tried putting the day in perspective for me. At the transport desk, going back to the Village, they asked how I did. ‘Seventh,’ I said. ‘Excellent,’ they replied. ‘It sucks,’ I countered. ‘No,’ they insisted.