''A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold'' is 2011

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English p ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

2008 Summer Olympics Gold medalist Abhinav Bindra. He won the medal in the 10-metre air rifle category, which made him India's first ever individual gold medalist; this victory came after he received the seventh rank at the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, due to Bindra's inexperience in writing, he co-authored the book with sportswriter

Rohit Brijnath Rohit David Brijnath is a veteran Indian sports journalist. Early in his career, Brijnath was a key member of the now-defunct weekly magazine ''Sportsworld'', where he wrote alongside young journalists such as Mudar Patherya and Andy O'Brien. ...

, which took them two years to complete. After it was released on October 20, 2011, at nationwide stores by Harpercollins, Union Sports minister

Ajay Maken Ajay Maken (born 12 January 1964) is a politician from the Indian National Congress party. He is the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) and member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). He was formerly a minister ...

formally released the book on October 27, 2011, at a function in New Delhi. The book's subsequent Bangalore release in November 2011 was done by

Rahul Dravid Rahul Sharad Dravid (; born 11 January 1973) is an Indian cricket coach and former captain of the Indian national team, currently serving as its head coach. Prior to his appointment to the senior men's national team, Dravid was the Head of ...

and went on to receive good reviews.

Synopsis

In this book, Bindra tells that only hunger for success and inner desire helps anyone to achieve his or her dreams. He denies that only the best training, coaches can lead to anyone's success. In this book, he tells how various coaches helped him to become a professional shooter. Especially, he gives credit to his German coach

Gabriele Bühlmann Gabriele "Gaby" Bühlmann (born 27 April 1964, in Basel, Switzerland) is a Swiss rifle shooter who competed at five Olympic Games from 1988 to 2004. She is the coach of 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal-winning 10m air-rifle shooter Abhinav B ...

, who helped him to win a gold medal after finishing 7th in the 2004 Summer Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

which he states as "the darkest hour in his career". He says that how he drew inspiration from shooters like

Gagan Narang Gagan Narang (born 6 May 1983) is an Indian sport shooter, supported by the Olympic Gold Quest. He won the bronze medal in the Men's 10 m Air Rifle Event at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with a final score of 701.1 on 30 July 2012. Earl ...

Samaresh Jung Samaresh Jung (born 5 May 1970) is an Indian sport shooter. He is an air pistol specialist. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, he won two gold medals, in the men's free pistol pairs and in the open event of 25 m standard pistol pai ...

Jaspal Rana Jaspal Rana (born 28 June 1976) is an Indian shooter. He contested mainly in the 25 m Centre Fire Pistol category. He was a gold medallist at the 1994 Asian Games, 1998 Commonwealth Games - Men's Center Fire Pistol, Men's Center Fire Pistol Pa ...

and

Anjali Bhagwat Anjali Bhagwat (born 5 December 1969) is a professional Indian sport shooter. She became the World Number One in 10m Air Rifle in 2002. She also won her first World Cup Final in Milan, in 2003, with a score of 399/400. Anjali won the ISS ...

. The book also highlights the unique situation faced by an Olympic contestant. He says that a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er or a

Professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

has many matches or tournaments to prove himself in a single year if he fails in one, but an Olympian has to wait 4 long years to prove himself if he fails once.

References

2011 non-fiction books Sports autobiographies Olympic Games books Indian autobiographies Rifle shooting sports Shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics 21st-century Indian books Collaborative autobiographies HarperCollins books {{sport-bio-book-stub