Abhinav Bindra
Paris Olympics will be tricky because of the three-year cycle: Abhinav Bindra
Bengaluru/UNI: India’s first individual Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra lauded the country’s performance at Tokyo Games, calling it the best ever while adding that the next Olympics in Paris will be tricky because athletes will only have three years for their preparations.
'It was a historic performance with the best-ever seven medals. There were moments of great triumph and heartbreaks, but that is what sport is all about. We have good momentum now going forward. I see the next Olympics cycle will be tricky, primarily because of the shorter cycle,' said Bindra at a webinar organised by ELMS Sports Foundation.
'Normally athletes get a year post-Olympics that allows them to rest and recover, but this time around they need to get back pretty quickly,' he added.
Notably, the Tokyo Games were postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic by a year and the Olympics cycle was reduced to three years, from the usual four ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The challenge of having fewer qualification events and quotas may add to the woes of athletes.
In Tokyo, Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra handed the country its only second individual Olympics gold. The celebrated shooter believes that bringing in scientific methods and creating a high-performance environment at the grassroots level will be critical going forward.
"We talk about top leaderships but I think we need to get more quality in the second-level of leadership. We need to empower these people with knowledge of how to set a high-performance environment.
"Incorporating science, technology, engineering, analytics and medicine to athletes’ training and development not just at the elite level but basing it right at the grassroots level is important," the 2008 Beijing Olympic champion said.
The 38-year-old also felt the country's college-level sporting system is not developed effectively enough and needs to be played in a much more meaningful way going forward as we lose a lot of talent in the transition from junior to elite level.
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