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Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has been the poster boy Indian shooting ever since he won the first individual Olympic silver medal for India in the 2004 Athens Games.
The soft-spoken Rathore, born on January 29, 1970, brought the entire nation to its feet with that awe-inspiring performance in Men's Double Trap event. The event has already become a part of Indian sporting folklore for the sheer delight it brought to this humongous nation of one billion people.
Rathore hasn't allowed success and adulation go into his head and has carried on his good performance at the international level. He won the gold in the individual and team events in Men's double trap at the 2005 Asian Clay Shooting championships at Bangkok. In 2005 Commonwealth Shooting Championships in Melbourne, Rajyawardhan Rathore was the member of the winning Indian team in the double trap event.
A grateful nation has honoured Rathore with some of the most prestigious awards of the land. He was conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the highest sporting honour in India, for the year 2004. A Lt. Colonel in the Indian Army who fought terrorists in Kashmir, Rathore was bestowed the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), a gallantry award for service presented by the government.
