Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore

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Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.jpg
Personal information
Nationality Indian
Born 29 January 1970 (age 45)
Jaisalmer, India
Updated on 27 January 2015.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore AVSM (born 29 January 1970) is a Veteran Indian shooter and politician (union minister), who rose to fame after winning the Silver Medal in Men's Double Trap at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.[1] He is the first sportsperson to win an individual Silver for India since Norman Pritchard, who won two Silver Medals at the 1900 Paris Olympics.[2] Rathore hails from Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

Rathore graduated from the National Defence Academy, and since served in the Indian Army where he retired as a Lt Colonel in 2013, before joining politics. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.[3] He won his first Lok Sabha election in 2014 and is currently the Minister of State for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting under the Narendra Modi government.

Early life

Rathore was born in Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) as his Maternal grandfather was posted there. He belongs to a Rajput family based in Bikaner.[4][5]

Shooting career

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Rathore won a Gold Medal and set a new Commonwealth Games Record of 192 targets out of 200, which still stands. He also won the Team Gold Medal along with Moraad Ali Khan. Rathore, went on to successfully defend his Commonwealth Champion title by winning the Gold Medal at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. He also won the Silver in the Team event with Vikram Bhatnagar. He won Gold Medals in two World Shooting Championships, at Sydney in 2004 and Cairo in 2006.

Rathore rose to prominence when he won the Silver Medal for India at the 2004 Athens Olympics in Double Trap.

In 2006, Rathore won a Bronze Medal in the World Championship in Spain, an event held for the top 12 shooters of the world. He was ranked third in the world for the most of 2003 and 2004 and briefly climbed to the first in early 2004 and second after the Athens Olympics. He won a Bronze at the World Championship in 2003 for India after a gap of nearly 40 years. India had not seen a victory since Karni Singh of Bikaner, who won a Silver at the 1962 World shooting Championship in Cairo. Rathore is accredited for winning the Asian Clay Target Gold Medal for four times in a row from 2003 to 2006. He also holds an Individual Bronze Medal which at the Asian Games 2006 in Doha.

Between 2002 and 2006 he won 25 International Medals at various championships for Double Trap.

Political career

On 10 September 2013, Rathore joined Bharatiya Janata Party after taking premature retirement from the Indian Army.[6] He was elected as a MP in the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Jaipur Rural constituency.[7] On 9 November 2014, he was sworn-in as the Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, under the Narendra Modi government. [8]

Awards and recognitions

References

  1. Shooter Rathore strikes silver
  2. Olympic medals won by Norman Pritchard - Stats - 2008 Beijing Olympic Games - ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
  3. Olympic hero Rajyavardhan Rathore joins BJP, quits army
  4. http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/RAJ-JPR-narendra-modi-in-jaipur-bjp-woes-rajput-community-with-rajyavardhan-singh-rathor-4371668-PHO.html
  5. http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/assembly-polls-rajasthan-royals-divided-between-bjp-and-congress/1179601/
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