India has a new national hero today. Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the 10m air rifle competition last night. He is the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games. Ever. He was the cover story on the newspaper this morning. He was the lead story on the news programs all day today. The sports channel which is broadcasting the Olympics here in India is right now doing a half hour special on Mr. Bindra. In all the footage I've seen he looks quite overwhelmed with his new found celebrity status, but I suspect he hasn't a clue what awaits him upon his return to India. Bindra's rifle is a Walther PPK.
Maybe the true testament to Mr. Bindra's accomplishment is that he has relegated cricket to second-class sports status. At least for now.
Before yesterday Indian athletes had won four individual medals (1 silver, 3 bronze). India has won 8 gold medals in men's field hockey, although the last of those wins was back in 1980. They failed to even qualify for the Olympics this year, which seems to be quite the scandal over here.
2 comments:
There's the comment link! excellent!
How _is_ the Olympic coverage over there? (other than all Mr. Bindra, all the time for today at least...)
24/7, or are you doing the internet streaming thing?
Being 15 hours behind, makes it a challenge to figure out what is really happening when...luckily the Canadian channel is doing stuff mostly live -- so we have options. Staying up too late watching Mr. Phelps win all his races (so far)...
That's very nice. Congrats on your win. I hope to see more of you succeeding in this sports. Thanks for sharing this with us! More power to you!
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