Sub-Continent Rejoices: India Has Their First Gold Medalist After 80 Years of Competing

It's kind of difficult to put into words how unbelievable it is that a country of 1.1 billion people had never won an individual gold medal before. Especially since India has been participating in the Olympics since 1928. In the ensuing 80 years they'd won only four individual medals. None of them gold. That all changed when Abhinav Bindra nailed a perfect shot in the 10m air rifle event. Now Bindra is the most famous 25-year-old in the country and Indians are celebrating in the streets. Prior to Bindra's gold, India was contemplating whether they should use all their IOC power to push for the spelling bee to be introduced as an Olympic event. Now, there's no limit to their sporting future. Or less of a limit. Even in 2008 the relative wealth of a country still has a lot to do with a country's ability to compete for Olympic medals. In Bindra's case, his father constructed an air-conditioned firing range for him to practice. In a country where 25% of the population still lives on less than $.40 cents a day, training for an Olympic medal is often the last thing on their minds. Yeah, that's .40 cents-not a misprint-and that represents 275 million people in the country. That's nearly the population of America. In America we've never doubted that one of us could be the best at anything in the world. At least for a short while Bindra has given over a billion Indians the belief that they too can be the best in the world at something. That's no small feat. Congrats to India. Family leads India's celebration of first gold [Yahoo]