Abhinav Bindra is why I love the Olympics. I should probably first explain that my favorite part of the games has always been the parade of nations. Seeing all the different countries, many that we seldom hear of, walking proudly in support of their people is a pretty amazing thing. The sad part about the parade of nations is that, as the annoying announcers told me 50+ times on Friday night, most of teams have not and will never win a medal.

And while Bindra’s team of India has won medals, they’ve never won an individual gold. That all changed this morning when Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men’s 10- meter air rifle event and India’s national anthem played for all to hear.

More than that, he wasn’t the favorite to win by a longshot:

Bindra, ranked 17th in the world, was in fourth place entering the final round. He never failed to score below a 10 on any shot and his score of 10.6 on the seventh of his 10 final shots moved him into first for good. [Bloomberg]

There is nothing better than an Olympic underdog win!

Stay tuned to the Olympics and TakePart, where I hope there will be more underdog stories to cover and also be sure to takepart with Team Darfur, a website of alternative Olympics programming designed to highlight the work we need to in Darfur.

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• Support Darfur With an Alternative Opening Ceremony
• An Olympic Flag Bearer for the US, A Champion of Darfur
• Joey Cheek A Threat To Security??