Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Olympic silver medallist appointed sports minister - Hindustan Times
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Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Olympic silver medallist appointed sports minister

PTI, New Delhi | ByPress Trust of India
Sep 03, 2017 06:24 PM IST

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who secured the silver medal in the men’s double trap at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, has been appointed the new sports minister, replacing Vijay Goel in a major cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Athens Olympic silver medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was appointed the new sports minister in place of Vijay Goel, who has been made the minister of state for parliamentary affairs.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who secured the silver medal in the men’s double trap at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, has been appointed the new sports minister.(HT Photo)
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who secured the silver medal in the men’s double trap at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, has been appointed the new sports minister.(HT Photo)

The 47-year-old Rathore was till now serving as minister of state for information & broadcasting. Rathore takes over from the pro-active Goel following a major cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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Rathore said the focus will be on winning medals at all levels.

“Win medals at all levels -- village level or at the Olympic level. Sports is a state subject so we will work together with the state departments to provide, like I said, best of the opportunities for the sportspersons,” Rathore said.

The former world championship silver medallist added, “The most important thing is that the sportsman only has one challenge and that is to overcome adversaries, and enhance the level of their sports.

“Also the youth, not just in sports, but also in their personality development because that’s the essence of the youth ministry.”

Colonel Rathore first stepped in a shooting range in the mid 1990s and some years later, he became India’s first ever individual silver medal winner at the Olympic Games. He stood on the podium after finishing second in the men’s double trap at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. A year before he created Olympic history, Rathore had won a silver medal at the 2003 World Championships in Sydney.

Prior to the Athens Games, Rathore was posted in Delhi with the army’s marksmanship unit for two years to help him practise in the city’s Tughlaqabad shooting range.

Rathore’s recovery from a patella fracture and a prolapsed disc to an Olympic medal is well known. At Athens, he moved up from fifth in the qualifiers to win silver in the final.

Born into an army family, Rathore cleared the National Defence Academy examination and served in the Indian army, including fighting militants in Kashmir for two years, which, his mother believes, held him in good stead during the Olympic final.

A second-generation army officer, Rathore is attached to the Jaipur-based 9 Grenadiers. His father, Colonel (retd) Lakshman Singh Rathore, once commanded it.

After taking premature retirement from the Indian army, Rathore joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2013 and was sworn in as minister of state for information & broadcasting when the Modi government came to power in May, 2014.

Abhinav Bindra, who had bettered Rathore’s Olympic feat with a first ever gold medal in 10m air rifle at Beijing Games, congratulated the minister. On his Twitter handle, he wrote

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