Abhinav Bindra, India's First Individual Olympic Gold Medallist, Honoured Ahead Of Paris Olympics

India's first individual gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, and Paralympian Deepa Malik have been honoured with Special Recognition Awards at a ceremony celebrating Indians who have made a significant impact globally. India Global Forum's (IGF) annual UK-India Awards 2024 at Fairmont Windsor Park, near London, on Thursday evening, honoured the sporting legends alongside a ‘Global Indian Icon Award' for social crusader Arunachalam Muruganantham, in recognition of his revolutionary work in menstrual hygiene captured in the 2018 Akshay Kumar film ‘Pad Man'. Lord Anthony Bamford, founder of multinational construction giant JCB, was honoured with the Lifetime Contribution to UK-India Relations.

“For a global sport like the Olympics, it makes complete sense to have a closer relationship with the world's largest population. Every fourth or fifth person in the world is in India, so there's a lot of synergy there,” said Bindra, on India potentially hosting the Olympics during a discussion around the future of sport in the country.

“But more than infrastructure, I think what we need is a vision that actually transcends far beyond the sporting events itself. The Olympics, whenever held in India, has to be seen as a catalyst for change, how the Games can really address challenges and how it can seize opportunities.

"It really has to be a springboard for how we can make India healthier and make India a more inclusive country,” he said. “We have to use it as a guide to make India better through sport,” Bhindra said.

Bindra, who is a torchbearer at the Paris Olympics next month, expressed confidence in India's performance in the games.

“We had our best ever start with seven at Tokyo and I'm quite sure that we better that and come back