Rajyavardhansingh Laxmansingh Rathore

Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore AVSM is an ex Army commissioned officer, Indian politician and a former professional shooter. As a shooter, competing in the double trap event, he won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympic Games. In a career spanning over a decade, he also won multiple medals at the Commonwealth and Asian Games. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2005.

Shri. Rathore served as a commissioned officer in The Grenadiers regiment of the Indian Army before retiring in 2013 as a colonel. Following his retirement from the Army and shooting, he became the member of the parliament (MP) for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014. In November 2014, was made the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting.

Shri. Rathore was born in Jaisalmer (Rajasthan) as his maternal grandfather was posted there. He belongs to a Rajput family based in Bikaner.

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Shri.Rathore won a Gold Medal and set a new Commonwealth Games Record of 192 targets out of 200, which still stands. He also won the Team Gold Medal along with Moraad Ali Khan. Shri.Rathore, went on to successfully defend his Commonwealth Champion title by winning the Gold Medal at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. He also won the Silver in the Team event with Vikram Bhatnagar. He won Gold Medals in two World Shooting Championships, at Sydney in 2004 and Cairo in 2006.

In 2006, Shri.Rathore won a Bronze Medal in the World Championship in Spain, an event held for the top 12 shooters of the world. He was ranked third in the world for the most of 2003 and 2004 and briefly climbed to the first in early 2004 and second after the Athens Olympics. He won a Bronze at the World Championship in 2003 for India after a gap of nearly 40 years. India had not seen a victory since Karni Singh of Bikaner, who won a Silver at the 1962 World shooting Championship in Cairo. Shri.Rathore is accredited for winning the Asian Clay Target Gold Medal for four times in a row from 2003 to 2006. He also holds an Individual Bronze Medal which at the Asian Games 2006 in Doha. Between 2002 and 2006 he won 25 International Medals at various championships for Double Trap.