Abhinav, it's been a long journey for you. Talk us through the early days of your initiation into shooting. Well, it's been long, you're right. It was many years ago when I started shooting and I took it up as a complete hobby and a pastime. It continues to be a hobby, except that I have taken it a little too seriously over the last few years. Rio is going to be my fifth Olympic games - it's been a long journey but a rewarding one, I would say.
There have been several high points in your career. But which one would you describe as the top of the heap in terms of your achievements? {Pauses and sighs} Well, winning an Olympic gold would be an obvious one. It's the highest form of success an athlete can hope for. I'm grateful and blessed to have been able to achieve that. I think the outcomes are one thing - I think it's (more about) just the effort one puts in, the work one puts in day in and day out...there are lots of ups and downs even in that journey and that to me is an interesting journey and that to me is the most fascinating part of the journey. The outcomes are nice, but those are just outcomes, milestones. There's so much more that an athlete goes through, day in and day out. For me those are the memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life and that for me is the most important thing.
Was there something specific in your buildup to the 2008 Olympics that made you believe you could go for gold that time? Well I'm very detached from the outcome, and I think that is something which served me well. I didn't care what the result was going to be. I just wanted to go and give my best in every shot, and I was able to attain a sort of detachment - that came because of a series of events - but my mindset was such that I wasn't outcome-driven at all...I didn't care about the result, I just wanted to give my best in every shot. That's it. You mentioned the ups and downs in your career. You've had a few serious injuries along the way as well. Tell us a bit about how you came to know about them and overcame those. I've not been the most athletic person. I hated sport when I took it up. I never had a good physical base. But when you shoot for twenty years, in a sport which requires an unnatural stance, it (picking up an injury) is bound to happen. I've had a lot of mechanical issues in my body and I continue to have them, but it is daily work. I have to work every day on it. Some days are good, some days are bad. But that's the way it is. You just have to continue to address them, continue to work at them. That's what I continue to do, day in and day out. You did mention that you aren't outcome-driven, but 2008 was the first individual gold at the Olympics by an Indian. When did you become aware of that, and how did that make you feel? Well, I was obviously aware that we hadn't won an individual gold medal, so somewhere deep in my mind it was also a motivation to go and do it. When I started shooting, I wanted to win a gold medal. I was very outcome-driven. It's just that prior to the (Olympic) games in 2008 - I would say a couple of months before the games - my mindset was such that I was very detached from the outcome and I was very focused on the process. But for sure, winning a gold medal has always been a big drive, a big motivation and to be the first one from your country was added motivation. What do you remember after winning the gold? I believe you weren't aware immediately afterwards that you'd finished first... I didn't care {smiles}. I didn't care what the outcome was, so that's why I wasn't concerned about it. My first interaction was with my coach at that moment Gaby. I think it took everything out of me. To win requires a lot of effort, especially for me, to dig very, very deep and I was able to dig extremely deep on that particular day. Of course, there was a lot of joy, a lot of happiness and a lot of thrill at that moment, but there was also a lot of satisfaction and also relief. You set out to do something for so many years - at that time was about 15-16 years of shooting - and day in and day out I woke up every morning, trying to achieve that goal...working towards it, and I was able to do that. So I was relieved and I was satisfied that all the effort that I had put in was worth it and I was able to achieve what I had set out to do. You spoke about the unnatural physical stance of shooting. Besides that, there's also an amazing amount of mental stillness and capacity required. How do you work towards achieving that? I think shooting is a sport of stillness...and human beings are not built to be still. Our minds are not built to be still. Our bodies are not built to be still. We were built to move. We are doing something that we're not naturally built to do. It's obviously a lot of work, a lot of training. It's fighting against your own self. That is the biggest thing. Of course, you are competing against a lot of other athletes, but most importantly the biggest battle is within. That is something that you can't really train for. That motivation or that drive has to be intrinsic. It's either there or it's not there - and you keep working on it. You try and get the better of that part of yourself which keeps resisting and try and just keep working towards it. It's constant work - I can achieve it today, but there's no guarantee that I will be in that same frame of mind two hours later, because we keep changing. Our mind keeps changing, our body keeps changing. Our feelings, our emotions keep changing. It's a constant change, and you have to somehow continue to adapt to those changes and bring out your best. I remember being told something on the lines of shooting being a sport where you pull the trigger in between the rhythms of your heartbeat. Can you expand on that? That's not possible for me...my heartrate is too high. I don't think it's humanly possible! I think it's a myth that you shoot between two heartbeats. It may happen; it may not happen...that is something so deep, so intrinsic. It probably happens at times - instinctively at times, but that is not something I'm on top of. I can't really say to myself "one heartbeat...now trigger...second heartbeat"...our heartrate keeps changing, it's never constant. Every moment your heartbeat is in a different rhythm. Our body is not a robot. It's not possible. It's a myth...it's a nice myth! One thing that we'll see at these Olympics for the first time is the new scoring system, wherein the scores at the finals will start from scratch. Obviously, the spectators enjoy this. What is the view of a shooter on that? I like it a lot. It's a more dynamic form of shooting. It's much more interesting. I enjoy it. That's the way it is, so I like it. Looking ahead at Rio, who do you think will be the main contenders for the rifle events? You've obviously got a great rivalry with Moldoveanu... Yeah...Moldoveanu still doesn't have a quota place, so I don't know if he's going to be in Rio...he's hoping to get a wildcard. But I don't think there's any rivalry and then I can't name one single person. Every athlete who gets to the Olympic Games is a world-class athlete and is capable of winning on a particular day. It is impossible to give a name or make a list...in fact; I can just give you a start list of the competition and tell you that each one has the capability of winning. I just don't think on those lines. I have to fight against myself...there are enough problems within. You've also begun giving back to the game in the form of your Trust. So tell us how that came about and where is it headed? Well, it's been an interesting journey. We've been trying to work on it for several years now, and over the last couple of years my Foundation tied up with GoSport Foundation and we've been able to hold a few workshops in the last couple of years to support about thirty junior athletes; to put them through sponsorships; to give them the guidance and knowhow through workshops. It's constant work, at the moment it's a little bit slow, primarily because I've been so busy with my preparations towards Rio, but I'm quite certain that I'll work on it post-August. You call yourself a "hobby shooter". So what is it that you enjoy doing when you're not shooting? At the moment, it's all pretty much shooting. It's my hobby...the games are five months away, it's 150 days to the Games. So at the moment all my time is devoted towards preparing, towards being the best that I can be in August. I spotted a Certificate for a Fighter Jet training that you did on your wall. Tell us about that experience. It wasn't really training. It was at the Bangalore Air Show a few years ago. I think it was in 2008, when Lockheed-Martin invited me on one of their F-16s. It was a great experience. It was like competition. Scary {widens eyes}.ther