Quotes

After I won in Beijing I chatted with a lot of Indian athletes and they were interested and keen to know what I did. They all thought that I had some sort of secret for success, but I just wanted them to understand and realize that the biggest secret is: there is no secret.

Growing up, I was not athletic.

When I was in school, before age 10 I hated any kind of sport.

I don't think I was a naturally born talent, surely I had some natural attributes, which perhaps helped me in my sport, but generally speaking I wasn't competitive in nature.

Nothing dramatic can be expected from the Sports Code, because the Olympic Charter has to be respected.

It is important to find a way to take sports forward. However, it is important to have certain stipulations in place like restriction in terms of age, tenure etc.

Nobody will give a single rupee if you cannot match value in a professional way. For that, you need paid professionals.

Even if you do all the right things, it may not ensure that the sponsors line up to support your sport.

It took a lot out of me to win. But more than anything, when you are goalless, you are listless in your life.

I'm quite a loser. I've done nothing in my life for the past 12 years. I'd just eat, sleep, run and do nothing except shooting.

Sport is one part of life. There are so many things to life but I've done nothing. I've really done nothing else but focused on shooting.

I've never been to a disco in my life.

I'm a Kareena Kapoor fan.

I have a goal in front of me and that is to achieve a gold medal at the Olympics in air rifle shooting.

It is a big achievement to win a medal at the World Cup. Winning a medal is like doing well at Wimbledon, in tennis. It is one of the biggest shooting competitions in the world.

Pressure is a positive thing and it makes no difference on your performance if it is not there.

It was many years ago when I started shooting and I took it up as a complete hobby and a pastime.

Rio is going to be my fifth Olympic games - it's been a long journey but a rewarding one, I would say.

I've not been the most athletic person.

I never had a good physical base.

I don't think too far ahead of myself.

When I started at 15, I never thought about winning nine Commonwealth Games medals.

To stand up to worldwide competition, we need a very strong set-up at home that produces athletes right from the beginner's level and has the sustained back-up for the same athlete to finally go and win an Olympic medal.

In my case it was a sustained effort. I was fortunate to have the backing of my parents to start off with and towards the Beijing Olympics the Mittal Champions Trust came into the picture and they helped me a lot.

My having won a gold medal in Beijing is not going to be an extra advantage. It does not have any bearing on how I perform in London in a year's time.