Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (born January 29, 1970, Jaisalmer, India) is an Indian politician and former rifle shooter who won his country’s first individual Olympic silver medal when he placed second in the men’s double-trap event at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Rathore attended the Indian National Defence Academy and joined the Indian Army upon his graduation. Though his interest in guns began when he was a child at the home of his grandfather, an army officer, it was not until 1998 that Rathore took up shooting seriously.

Rathore rose to prominence when he won gold medals in the men’s individual and pairs double-trap events at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. He followed his triumphant 2004 Olympics appearance by taking a gold medal in individual double trap and a silver in pairs double trap at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Later that year he led India to a silver medal in the men’s pairs double-trap event and also won a bronze in the men’s individual double-trap event at the Asian Games.

In 2005 Rathore was awarded the Padma Shri (one of India’s highest civilian honors). After retiring from competition, he served in the Grenadiers infantry regiment of the Indian Army and retired as a colonel in 2013. The following year he was elected to the Lok Sabha (lower house of the parliament) as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and was made the minister of state for information and broadcasting. In 2017 he was appointed as a cabinet minister in charge of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, during which time he played a key role in setting up the Khelo India Youth Games. Rathore was elected to a second term in the parliament and served until 2023.