In his third Olympic Games, accustomed to failure in the last two, he seemed determined to simply wallow in an atmosphere that comes along only once every four years. But, in the early hours of Indian Standard Time on Monday, he had managed a feat that was a first in the history of Indian sport — an individual Olympic gold.

Irony abounds: In his first entry after reaching Beijing with all his hopes and dreams, Bindra appeared awestruck at the vastness of it all, “It is an amazing feeling to be in a place that is buzzing with world-class athletes and everyone soaking up the experience, but yet all there with one big purpose — the ever-elusive ‘gold medal’.”

The 25-year-old from Chandigarh now stands “a class apart”, “a cut above”, and a whole bunch of other clichés that have already been used to describe his achievement, but a few days earlier, he was reveling just at being a part of it all. “It’s definitely motivating rubbing shoulders with your peers, who are all well established in their fields, and also with your countrymen, a lot of whom you meet for the first time. There is a camaraderie in your designated housing blocks, which is an experience that one only feels at the Games.”

True to his initial word, Bindra did do his best to absorb everything outside the shooting ranges with quite a determined fervour. So reads his blog on August 7: “Today is my day off and so I am going to spend some time soaking in the village and actually getting my mind to do something it has never done before — NOT THINK ABOUT SHOOTING!!! Instead of thinking about perfect bulls-eyes, today I am going to think of the pretty women in the village, the weather, the great city of Beijing and whatever else pops into my mind will be allowed to stay as long it doesn’t involve the words ‘rifle’, ‘shooting’ in it... It is a great time to be an athlete and this event is what we all live for.”

Bindra had time for a few other light-hearted ruminations as well: “The food at these athletes villages is in abundance — so much choice that you sometimes get there and spend a good amount of time being confused whether you are really hungry or not.”

Are these words from an athlete ridden with demands of the Olympic kind, you wonder. And yet, Bindra’s keep-the-pressure-away approach just happened to be the one that struck gold.

Life and Times

•Age: 25

•Born: Dehradun

•Residence: Chandigarh

•Event: 10m air rifle

Roll of honour

Gold: Beijing Olympics 2008

Zagreb World Chmapionship 2006

Commonwealth Games 2006 (team)

Commonwealth Games 2002 (team)

Silver: Commonwealth Games 2002

Bronze: Commonwealth Games 2006

Previous Olympics result

7th place, 2004 Athens Olympics

Awards: Arjuna in 2000

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2001

•Bindra began the sport at the age of 13 because he liked the idea of fame. He shoots for seven hours and jogs and stretches for two hours each day.

•As a five-year-old, he used to shoot water balloons placed on the housemaid’s head with a toy pistol. That’s how his talent was spotted, says his father

•Used to shoot empty beer bottles at home with his air rifle before his father decided his time would be spent better being coached professionally

•Qualified for the finals in Athens with a world record score but slipped to seventh place due to a technical problem

•Back injury put him out of action in 2006. Monday’s gold is the culmination of a remarkable comeback.