Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was handed the Sports and Youth Affairs portfolio on Sunday, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet reshuffle.
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 Games.
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.
He is now India’s first sportsperson to be handed the Sports Ministry.
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