Olympic champions Campriani & Bindra team up for Target Tokyo
Suvam Pal
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Niccolo Campriani (L) and Abhivan Bindra (R) /VCG Photo

Niccolo Campriani (L) and Abhivan Bindra (R) /VCG Photo

They were fierce competitors inside the shooting range during their heydays, but now the two iconic riflemen, Niccolo Campriani and Abhivan Bindra, have decided to join hands to give back to the society and the sport they once pursued to reach the pinnacle of their respective careers.

With Campriani currently pursuing his post-retirement goal of sending at least one refugee to the shooting events of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Bindra has extended his helping hand to the great cause, envisioned by his erstwhile arch-rival.

Rifle for redemption in life

The 31-year-old man, who used mental and physical skills over years as a professional rifle shooter, is now coaching and mentoring three refugee athletes – Mahdi, Khaoula and Luna – after being inspired by the IOC’s first Refugee Olympic Team in Rio and a subsequent visit to a refugee camp in Africa with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

While sharing the concept of his mission Tokyo 2020 in Taking Refuge: Target Tokyo 2020, a special broadcast series on the Olympic Channel, three-time gold medalist Campriani said, “The idea was to help a couple of refugees from my local area, the Canton of Vaud [Switzerland], to reach the minimum qualifying score for Tokyo in one of the events I competed in, the 10-meter air rifle.”

“Being an Olympic champion is a responsibility. We are role models and we have the power of influencing people, whether we like it or not. After spending many years on improving myself, it was time to roll my sleeves up and give back,” he added after bringing together a group of refugees to see if any of them has what it takes to qualify for Tokyo 2020 in the air rifle shooting event.

Although the Italian Olympian has come to the forefront with his mission, Bindra has bolstered noble project through his own experience and his foundation, which has been helping the athletes with the high-performance equipment and training. The Abhinav Bindra Foundation, which the renowned shooter launched post-retirement in order to help young athletes across different sports, has been helping Campriani’s wards through its Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance (ABTP) and its high-performance training centers.

India's Abhinav Bindra looks at his score after the men's 10-meter air rifle individual event at the Ongnyeon International shooting range of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon on September 23, 2014. /VCG Photo

India's Abhinav Bindra looks at his score after the men's 10-meter air rifle individual event at the Ongnyeon International shooting range of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon on September 23, 2014. /VCG Photo

A golden rivalry

Incidentally, the two Olympic legends first battled it out against each other on the biggest stage of world sports at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 10-meter air rifle event saw India’s Bindra going on to win the first-ever individual gold medal for his country while his Italian rival Campriani failed to qualify for the final of the most high-profile shooting event at the Shooting Range Hall in the Chinese capital. They battled it out in the next two Olympic Games as well and it was Campriani, who returned as a gold medal winner in the two back-to-back Summer Games in London in 2012 and Rio in 2012, while Bindra went down fighting and returned empty-handed in the pursuit for hitting the bull’s eye.

Interestingly, the intense 10-meter air rifle event at the Rio Games saw the two iconic shooters almost matching each other shot by shot and were eventually separated by a few decimal points in the final. While Campriani went on to win his maiden gold medal in the particular event to call it a day from his illustrious career as a marksman, former champion Bindra, who eventually finished seventh, too decided to hang his rifle on the same day at the Brazilian Olympic venue.

All for a noble cause

“That gold medal should have been silver: I won due to a mistake made by the other finalist (the Russian Sergey Kamenskiy). At the time I struggled to come to terms with that gold and I donated the difference in prize money to the UNHCR,” Campriani recalled.

“Later I was invited to visit the Meheba Refugee Camp, one of the biggest refugee camps in Africa. That experience had a huge impact on me and made me think about how I could use my status as an Olympian, and the network I had grown, for a cause that I feel close to my heart,” he revealed in the upcoming series for the Olympics Channel.

Meanwhile, his protégés have come a long way as they recently took part at the Italian National Shooting Championships in Bologna – their first ever shooting competition – as Campriani has set an immediate target of helping them to secure the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS) in order to become eligible for Tokyo 2020.

“This sport has taught me a lot about how to manage my emotions, my fears and my instincts. It's about moving on from the fears of your past. Not forgetting it but learning how to deal with it in order to focus on the present moment,” the retired shooter stated as he has been leaving no stone unturned to fulfill his dream of Target Tokyo with the three inconspicuous refugees, who have been mainly honing their skills at the World Archery Excellence Center in Lausanne, Switzerland.