Abhinav Bindra

Abhinav Bindra was born on 28 September 1982, in Dehradun, India, to Dr. Arpit Bindra and Babli Bindra. Bindra’s father owned a business and the family was a prosperous one.

He studied at the elite Doon School located in Dehradun for a couple of years but later on moved to the St. Stephen’s School located in Chandigarh, Punjab. In 2000, he completed his high school education. He graduated with a Bachelor in Business Administration degree from the University of Colorado.

He showed an interest in shooting from an early age and to support his interest his parents got a shooting range installed at their home in Patiala, Punjab. Bindra was initially coached mentored by Dr. Amit Bhattacharjee and subsequently by Lt. Colonel Dhillon.

In 1998, at the age of 15, Abhinav Bindra participated in the Commonwealth Games, held at Kuala Lumpur; he was the youngest participant in the games.

He was part of Indian contingent for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. However, the event turned out to be a disappointment for him as he could not get past the qualifying rounds.

He made the heads turn with his performance in the 2001 Munich World Cup; he won a bronze medal with a new junior world score of 597/600. Overall he won six gold medals at various international meets in 2001.

Bindra came into his own at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held at Manchester. He won the gold in the 10m Air Rifle Pairs event and silver in the 10m Air Rifle Singles event.

In the 2004 Athens Olympics, his performance was below par and he finished last in the field of eight, in the finals.

He is the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games.

He holds the distinction of being the first and only Indian to have held both the World and Olympic titles at the same time.

He was honoured with the Arjuna Award, in 2000, and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award—the highest sports award in India—in 2001.

In 2009, Bindra was awarded the Padma Bhushan—the third highest civilian award in India.