We need to look beyond 2020 Olympics: Bindra

Team Udayavani, Mar 18, 2017, 1:22 PM IST

Mumbai: Stressing on the need to put systems in place, India’s lone Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra today said the country should forget about 2020 Games and instead start working for 2024 and beyond.

“No, for 2020 (Olympics), the time is too short. Just a couple of years down the road and you can’t really make any significant changes. You have to just try and streamline whatever you have. It would be a mistake to completely, radically change everything. Any change takes time to set in,” the 34-year-old shooter said when asked about the road ahead for India’s Olympic sports.

“In all fairness, we should just forget about 2020 (Olympics) and maybe start working for 2024 (Olympics) and beyond 2024, 2028 (Olympics). That requires the systems, that requires long term investment, that requires patience. We need to set systems in order and hopefully those systems and that investments that you put in through a significant amount of time, will bear fruit sometimes down the road,” Bindra, who won a gold medal in 10m air rifle event in 2008 Beijing Olympics, said during a session at the India Today Conclave 2017 here.

“If sporting success is important to us and if its high on our priority, then we are going to do it, and we are going to do it by getting best people in the world and try and set those systems up in this country. There is talent, there is huge amount of talent that exists, except that (the) talent needs to be nurtured right from the grassroots and taken up to the Olympic level,” he said..

Bindra also said he did not regret the loss in Rio Olympics as he gave his best performance.

“Time is the best healer. Acceptance. You accept what the reality is and move on. Sometimes, we try and resist things too much. An event happened, you can’t change the result, so accept it and move on. At the end of the day, I had a lot of internal satisfaction because I did the best. In athletes life one is not scared of failure, one is not scared of doing badly. I had no regret because I put my best into it (the performance),” said Bindra.