Abhinav Singh Bindra (born 28 September 1982) is an Indian shooter and is a World and Olympic champion in the 10 m Air Rifle event. By winning the gold in the 10 m Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games. It was also India's first gold medal since 1980, when the Men's Field Hockey Team won the gold. He is the first and only Indian to have held both the World and Olympic titles at the same time, a feat he accomplished by capturing the Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, after having won the gold at the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships.
EARLY YEARS
Abhinav Bindra was born in the home of Punjabi Sikh family. He studied at The Doon School for two years before moving to St. Stephen's School, Chandigarh; he graduated from Stephen's in 2000. His parents had an indoor shooting range installed at their home in Patiala, Punjab. His Mental Coach was Surabh Bhattacharjee and Abhinav Kumar resides in Patna, who has been closely associated with him since the beginning of his career. Bhattacharjee and Lt. Col. Dhillon (who was also his first Coach) were the first ones to spot the potential in Abhinav. Bindra was the youngest Indian participant at the 2000 Olympic Games. His current coach is a five-time Olympic shooter Gabriele Bühlmann from Basel, Switzerland, with whom he trained in Germany before the Olympics.
In the 2000 Olympics Bindra achieved a score of 590, placing him 11th in the qualification round, meaning he did not qualify for the finals since only the top eight competed in the finals. After his disappointing performance, Bindra said that he had no plans to retire from shooting.