Apurvi Chandela: I was heartbroken after the Rio Olympics

The 27-year-old also spoke about her first meeting with shooting legend Abhinav Bindra.

Parents play a massive role in the journey of any athlete. They are undisputedly the biggest fans of the athlete and provide much-needed motivation when the chips are down. Indian shooter Apurvi Chandela can attest to that after her mom helped her to deal with her disappointment at the Rio Olympics.

She couldn’t conjure the performances she would have ideally liked to as she finished 34th in the women’s 10m air rifle event at the quadrennial event. Her displays weighed heavily on her mind leaving her dejected and massively affected her mental health.

 “I was already a quiet person and I became even quieter. I was heartbroken after not doing well at the Olympics and preferred being alone, thinking about the things that had gone wrong,” Apurvi Chandela spoke of this difficult period on the Instagram Live show, CollaboNation, hosted by Manavaditya Rathore.

Nevertheless, her mom stood by her and didn’t let the shooter deal with this crisis on her own. she stated, “She stuck by me and made sure she talked to me and got things out. That process of talking and expressing your feelings is very important, especially at a time like that.”

Like countless other athletes, the shooting ace grew up idolizing one of the greats of Indian shooting in Abhinav Bindra. Fortunately, for her, she received the chance to be on the Indian shooting team at the same time as him. Apurvi Chandela said, “I feel so lucky to have played at the Olympics (Rio 2016) with him – it was my Games debut and his final one.”

She was also a part of the Indian shooting team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where Abhinav Bindra and she both bagged a gold medal at their respective 10m air rifle events. She recalls those moments fondly. “It was my first major medal and he had just won his gold the day before. These are two of the most special moments in my life.”

She also revealed that she was awestruck the first time she saw her childhood hero in flesh and could not bring herself to approach him, when yet again her parents made a timely intervention.

“I was so nervous when I saw Abhinav Bindra and all I could do was excitedly point him out to my parents. They literally had to drag me to meet with him because they knew I was an introvert and would not go up to him myself. It was an amazing experience to speak to him then,” Apurvi Chandela concluded.