FIVB discusses opportunities for volleyball’s

development in India with Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra

March 5, 2025.- Opportunities for volleyball’s development in India was discussed this week, as Olympic champion from India, Mr Abhinav Bindra, visited the FIVB headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Meeting with FIVB President Fabio Azevedo and the FIVB team, he discussed potential collaboration opportunities to enhance volleyball in schools across India. 

Abhinav Bindra became the first athlete from India to win an individual Olympic gold medal – at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 in the men’s 10m air rifle event. He also holds the distinction of being the first athlete from India to win a World Championship gold medal in air rifle shooting.

Following his retirement from sports competition, Mr Bindra founded the Abhinav Bindra Foundation Trust (ABFT), a nonprofit organisation dedicated to supporting grassroots athletes in India through cutting-edge sports science technology. The Foundation is working with the Olympic Values Education Programme (OVEP) on the initiative across 63,000 schools in partnership with the International Olympic Committee’s Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage (OFCH) and state governments in Odisha and Assam, in India.

During the meeting both leaders discussed opportunities to host mass participation volleyball events in India, as well as including volleyball in the OVEP programme across the country. This is in line with the FIVB Strategic Vision 2032, which is built on four key principles, Professionalism, Integration, Empowerment and Mass Participation.