Abhinav Bindra On India's Flop Show In Rio

We will move forward a lot quicker the day we realise that when our athletes fail, it is we, as a nation, who fail. Sport is a mere reflection of the society. The first rule is, there is no short cut to success. Half the battle is won when we are all prepared to work hard with the right attitude,

- Abhinav Bindra

It is a shock to most people that a contingent of 118 could only win two medals in the Rio Olympics. For me, it is not so. We still have not put a proper system in place.

It is creditable that the number of Indian athletes qualifying for the Olympics has increased. It has improved across sports. It is a positive factor. We definitely need the numbers, if we want to excel. We have often heard that quality comes from quantity. It is a little bit disappointing that we could not win a few more medals when we were right there at the threshold of success.

THE ONLY GUARANTEE IN SPORTS is that there is no guarantee. You can do everything right for four years, and still there is no assurance that you will get that Olympic medal.

THE QUESTION IS, are we doing the right things? Do we have a system that can help us back on our feet, after having suffered such a blow, and march towards the future, actually riding on the disappointment, for greater success?

I missed the final in the London Olympics on the last five shots in qualification. This time, I had possibly the best finish in qualification. I overcame the challenges in the final, but could not close my shooting career with a medal.

DESPITE THAT OLYMPIC GOLD, and the World Championship gold in 2006, I did not have a magic touch to cruise and flow. It was a struggle all the same, every shot. So, post London, there was a lull, when our system went into hibernation and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was trapped in its own problems. When the focus on the plan for athletes was lost, it was a bad sign. When the attention was eventually trained on the preparation of the athletes, it was a bit late.