Bindra says more high-performance centres on anvil

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

Seeking to bridge the gulf between the advanced technology the world uses and the ones accessible to Indian athletes, champion plans to set up more high-performance and rehab centres across the country.

"I have plans to scale up. A few of our centres are doing well. I have identified that the best centre currently is the one in Things are coming up, I do have plans to open more centres across the country, and I am looking for like-minded individuals to partner with," said on the sidelines of an event in the capital.

The 35-year-old remains India's only individual gold medallist in

Since retiring from shooting, has set up what is arguably one of India's top-notch high performance and rehab centres at and

"Unfortunately in those facilities were absolutely not available, they were not available for sport, they were also not available for normal rehab, neurological rehab, or preventive health care.

"I had access to this doctor in Munich, a very famous medicine doctor, who has been associated with teams, Bolt etc. etc. He has this great setup, a lot of technology that he uses for rehabilitation for not just athletes but normal people also have access."

As an elite athlete, Bindra spent two decades visiting science centres across the world and worked with the world's top medicine experts to improve performance or recover from

"And that's what I did, I had my first centre in Mohali, I have a centre now in and my third centre is my biggest, spread across 10000 square feet for athletes.

"It's the philanthropy that I do, I run it through my foundation and all elite athletes, all upcoming athletes have free access to the best of facilities in terms of high performance, rehab, prevent It's a very interesting, unique journey I have undertaken."

Besides helping elite as well as upcoming athletes to harness their skills, Bindra is convinced that sports science and technology can help normal people recover from or

"I think hospitals and health care institutes are generally more focussed on critical care because that's where the economics lies and I think transitional health care is something which has missed out.

"Unfortunately, after care is not available in this country and that's where I am trying to bring a change in the system. People deserves the best, people deserves to be healthy."

Bindra is known as much for his attention to detail as he is for his perseverance and persistence.

"needs to grow. We have so much talent, it's unbelievable, but all that talent needs nurturing, infrastructure, and all that talent requires the edge that is needed to go out there and win an gold medal.

"The world is so advanced, technology plays such an important role. The west is just paying attention to that one percent detail because that one percent detail is going to be the difference between winning a gold medal in and finishing 15th.

"I am trying to work on that one percent and making that accessible.

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First Published: Sun, July 15 2018. 15:30 IST