Abhinav Bindra's A Shot at History

If one wants to get an idea as to what all goes into making of an Olympic champion, one should grab this book and read it from cover to cover. Bindra's book is good to read, written in a somewhat chatty style but a long list of references  at the end of the book confirms that a lot of hard work and scholarly research has gone into making of this book. Credit should be shared by Rohit Brijnath whose name has been given as a co-author. Brijnath, who is a senior journalist, has given a style to the content that makes this book an enjoyable read.

Apart from the Preface which has been written by Brijnath,
 the book also has a prologue and an epilogue in addition to a customary Acknowledgements written by Bindra himself.
The book begins with the defeat at the Athens Olympics, at which Bindra lost at the Finals winning not even a bronze medal. A detailed description of his performance there has been given as also of the resultant heartbreak. Athens figures again in the chapter 'The Greek Tragedy' where Bindra reveals somewhat cannily that the shooting plane on which he stood for the final shoot was defective which ruined his scoreThe Athens experience is not, however an entire waste. This experience is used by the shooter and his support staff and his parents to prepare him in a  more assured  manner for the next Olympics i.e. the Beijing ones where the shooter finally wins the coveted gold medal In between he also wins the World Championship and  some other individual events
The theme that runs through the entire book as a perennial stream is that the Olympic champions are not made just like that.Apart from the back-breaking hard work--reaching the shooting range at 3 am everyday for months together and practicing steadfastly with an almost monk-like singlemindedness and concentration-the journey to the medal also involves mechanical, psychological, psykinetic training and, to a large extent, divine support. And this is more so in the sport of air-pistol shooting in which Bindra participates.More than all this is the parental support which luckily he received to the fullest extent.
Bindra acknowledges gratefully the support and assistance provided by his parents.But other than the parents he expresses his indebtedness to his German coaches-a husband-wife team of Heinz and Gaby and his friend and buddy Amit Bhattacharjee. Of course the contribution of other coaches has not been ignored.. He has a huge respect for his fellow shooters from India-Anjali Bhagwat, Gagan Narang, Suma Shirur Samaresh Jung and Deepali Deshpande and makes it clear that there is no rivalry between him and Narang.
After the failure at Athens, Bindra gets obsessed  with the idea of getting a gold medal and starts working like a man possessed to win it at the Beijing event. He describes lucidly how his mental state of readiness at Beijing was different from what it had been at Athens and how some physical and mental adjustments made him win a gold there while at Athens he could win no medals. He states and quotes the fellow shooter Anjali  Bhagwat that Bindra's performance at Athens was better than that at Beijing.
Bindra describes unenthusiastically how he was felicitated and lionized after his victory at Beijing---receiving letters from the prime minister, the president and almost everybody who was somebody in India. Being invited by different States and sports bodies, being felicitated by them,throngs of people waiting at the either side of the roads etc was a surreal experience which Bindra enjoyed to the hilt. But , and it is to his credit, that he did not lose his head as he mentions categorically that your past record means nothing and that the next Olympics begin the day the previous ones have ended.
Like many sports persons in the country, Bindra, too, does not have many kind words for the sports administrators. According to him, administrators do not know much about the  training requirements of the sports persons -their diet, their equipments  their physical and mental well-being and the overall environment needed to excel, which all world level competitions in general and Olympics in particular require.
Bindra, who has recently been conferred an honorary rank of lieutenant colonel is a candidate for the London Olympics also. Let us hope he does not disappoint a nation of a billion plus. Bindra is the only Indian to have won a gold medal in an individual event in any Olympics.The book should be read by every sport person who aspires to win a medal in any worthwhile event, his/her parents, coaches, support staff and lastly by sport administrators.