A massive furore over Salman Khan’s appointment as India’s Rio Olympic goodwill ambassador saw the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) rope in ace shooter Abhinav Bindra as the contingent’s sporting face. The 2008 Olympic gold medallist is proving to be quite the motivator, after sending an emotional e-mail to each Indian athlete participating in Rio.
The detailed e-mail stated, “Like all of you, I have also planned a run up to pre-Olympic preparation and events and from July 10, I will be setting out on my last round of training/competition. Between now and then, if you would like to chat or want to know something or share anything, what the Games mean to you, what they mean to me, I am here, available on this email address.”
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He added, “In over a 100 years of India’s Olympic participation, there are not too many men and women like you. Indian Olympians and Paralympians, put us all together. Every single Indian Olympian from the first competitor in 1900 to the youngest amongst our ranks in 2016 and we could barely fill half a stand at the Nehru Stadium in Delhi. I am sure you are excited, impatient, and waiting to get stuck into your event and to see how good you are and to show the world just how good you can be.”
The 33-year old is currently promoting the Olympic Games amongst the Indian mass, along with legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Bindra, who is currently training for the 10m rifle event is taking out time from his training to guide other athletes to Olympic success.
While accepting the offer, he stated, “I am humbled by your goodwill gesture of making me goodwill ambassador for the forthcoming Rio Olympics. I gladly accept your invitation. We have written to him, but we aren’t sure whether he knows about it yet, as he has communicated to us that he’s undergoing a very strict training regime.”
He ended the letter by saying, “Godspeed, comrades and see you in Rio!”
