Most of the athletes struggle to digest the thought of retirement. Floods of tears flow over their own story.
The prospect of retirement can be a big red light flashing in front of their eyes. However, when Niccolo Campriani left the shooting range at the Rio Olympic Games with the 50m 3-positions rifle gold medal, there were no second thoughts.
With three gold medals in two editions, the Italian admitted that post retirement, it was a question of finding some meaning after spending 16 years of staring and shooting at a piece of paper.
“When I started to shoot in 2000 at the age of 13, the focus was to go to the Olympics one day. But after winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics, there was a void…. What next? I wondered. So, I kept shooting and passion became an obsession.
“Four hours of shooting became 12 hours and I could have gone on endlessly. But I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing. My mind was made up that it (the Rio Games) would be the last competitive event of my life,” said Campriani, as he unveiled “Taking Refuge”, a five-part series partnering Abhinav Bindra, which premiered on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) global media platform.
Campriani still battled on and at Rio 2016 he added two more golds to his tally from London 2012. Despite the medals, the sense of satisfaction eluded the Italian legend.
The 34-year-old finally found meaning three years after retirement, when his audacious project to help refugees qualify for Olympics started taking form.
"The refugee cause is very close to my heart. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refugee team was first one in 2016 Games, and probably there was going to be another one in Tokyo. I contacted a few of my colleagues, sponsors to see if we could put together a budget and a small team. I just wanted to give back to the community through my sport," said the Italian as he selected three wards ― Mahdi, Khaoula and Luna ― to undergo coaching by him in order to qualify for Tokyo 2020 in 10-metre air rifle shooting.
With the bunch of three now having only 500 days to make the cut for Tokyo 2020, Campriani pointed out that it was a ‘challenge within a challenge’ considering it’s nearly impossible to earn an Olympic quota within a year of starting the sport.
Niccolo Campriani (right) with Mahdi (left) and Khaoula during their visit to Bengaluru. | Olympic Channel
Campriani considers the day he held the first training session with the three shooters as one of the most satisfying moments of his career.
“And it happened after I had retired,” he said. “So that’s the message I want to send out to all athletes who are struggling with retirement. Life goes on beyond your career.”
“I don’t agree with the equation that a gold medal equals happiness. We do have to right to be unhappy. It’s not that because we have won gold at the Olympics we are the happiest people in the world. At the end of the day, it’s about being passionate and loving what you do. It’s so important to pass this message to every athlete that they may not find happiness atop the podium. It’s about working on yourself. The last shot at the Olympics is not going to define who you are,” Campriani said.
Campriani revealed that while he was selecting athletes for his project, he was looking for candidates who had something more than just a want to go to the Olympics.
To put it into context, it took Campriani twelve years to be a part in his first Olympics after picking up the sport in 2000. According to him, even reaching the Minimum Qualifying Score (MQS) takes two-three years of time.
“The tricky part is that ideally any athlete first competes in regional competitions, then nationals and so on. Then you get to the international level. But for these three, their first competition was an international one.”
Despite that, Mahdi (at the Asian Championships) and Khaoula (at the European Championships) have achieved the Minimum Qualification Scores.
Campriani said that despite the increase in cost for the projest due to the postponement of the Olympic Games, he has chosen to look at the brighter side.
"It was a bit of a shock for all. At the same time, they have twice the time they thought they had. That means extra weeks, months, and more competitions which for us is more important."
Terming the postponement as a gamechanger, Campriani said: "Postponement is 365 days more of training. The whole break, lockdown, quarantine measures haven't been easy, but they are back to training now. We need to find a shooting club in Switzerland. They should take advantage of it, be in a sport community, and meet their peers.
“For someone who was aiming to go the Olympics with just 500 days of training, it’s a game-changer,” he concluded.
