Athens Olympic silver medallist shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore was on Sunday appointed the new sports minister.
The 47-year-old Rathore was till now serving as minister of state for information & broadcasting.
Rathore takes over from the pro-active Vijay Goel following a major cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Colonel Rathore first stepped in a shooting range in the mid 1990s and in 2004, he became India’s first ever individual Olympic silver medallist.
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 Men’s Double Trap.
Born in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, 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.
After taking premature retirement from the Indian army, Rathore joined the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in 2013 and was elected as Member of Parliament from Jaipur Rural after a spectacular win.
Later, Rathore was sworn in as minister of state for information & broadcasting.