New Delhi. Olympic gold medal-winning shooter Abhinav Bindra on Thursday requested stakeholders in the sports ecosystem to treat athletes like humans and not medal-winning robots. The recent success of Indian players in all the major international competitions like Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games has not only increased the status of the players but has also increased the burden of expectations placed on them.
Bindra, 10 meter air rifle gold medalist at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, said that being mentally healthy is a very important aspect which is necessary not only for the players but also for the coaches and sports psychologists should be very patient with them. .
Bindra said in a virtual interaction with sports psychologists at the Karni Singh Shooting Range here, “The most important thing is to treat the players like human beings and not prepare them like medal-winning robots.” He said, “It is very important to build trust and relationship with the players. Sports psychologists should be patient with the players for continuous mental and emotional development.” Bindra requested sports psychologists not to assess the players, especially the shooters, on the basis of their previous Olympic performance in Tokyo but should look at them on the basis of where they are currently.
He said, ‘How much must have changed in the mentality of the shooters who participated in the Tokyo Olympics and those who will participate in Paris. Psychological assessment of players should be based on how they are doing in the current situation and not how they were four years ago. As per the development of players, it is necessary to develop sports psychologists also. ,