Abhinav Singh Bindra

2008 Beijing Olympics

Bindra booked his place in the 2008 Olympics by winning the gold medal at the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships with a score of 699.1

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra won the gold for the Men's 10m Air Rifle final after shooting a total of 700.5. He scored 596 (fourth) in the qualifying round and out-scored all other shooters in the finals with a round of 104.5. In the finals, he started with a shot of 10.7, and none of his shots were below 10.0. Bindra was tied with Henri Häkkinen heading into his final shot. Bindra scored his highest of the finals - 10.8 while Hakkinen came with 9.7 to settle for Bronze medal. Again, Abhinav Bindra won the gold in spite of his gun being allegedly fiddled with. The winning of the gold with the last shot hitting the bulls eye (10.8 points) only proved to show, how good a shooter Abhinav is.

This was India's first individual gold medal at the Olympics, and the first gold in 28 years, since the Men's Field Hockey team won the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Bindra was rewarded by various Indian state governements and private organizations for his achievement. These include the state governments of Punjab - Rs 10 million (approx. $250,000), Harayana - Rs 2.5 million,[17] Maharashtra - Rs 1 million, Karnataka - Rs 1 million, Tamil Nadu - Rs 0.5 million,[20] Madhya Pradesh - Rs 0.5 million and Chattisgarh - Rs 0.5 million. Other organization that rewarded Bindra includes Chandigarh civic administration - Rs 0.5 million,[17] BCCI - Rs 2.5 million, Indian Railways - lifelong free pass for Bindra & one companion in First AC, Spicejet Airways - lifelong free flight ticket to Bindra[21] and Samsung - Rs 2 million and Bihar Government Rs.1.1 million