Indian shooting’s first major eye-grabbing Olympic moment before that was Anjali Bhagwat qualifying for the final at Sydney 2000. Getting a medal at the Olympics was a dream yet to be fulfilled, until Rathore, carrying a shotgun on his shoulder, stepped onto the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre in Athens.
“I may have appeared calm inside, but I was dying a thousand deaths out there,” Rathore famously quoted back then. In fact, his calmness in the dying moments of the qualifying round and the final earned him the nickname ‘Chilly’.
Rathore’s silver was a big shot in the arm for the Indian Olympic athletes, especially the shooters and Abhinav Bindra, who went on to grab the elusive individual Olympic gold for the country at Beijing 2008.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was the winner of the silver medal in the men’s double trap shooting event at Athens 200… https://t.co/IjuzWuoX9r
— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) 1613824205000
Despite taking up shooting only after joining the army, Rathore rose up the ranks in the fast-lane. He was world No. 3 at the Athens Olympics and entered the competition as the Commonwealth Games champion.
The armyman qualified for the final in a strong field at Athens with a score of 135/150 but had to pull out all stops in the final round of qualifying, in which he scored 46 points to finish fifth among the six finalists.
That confidence must have been the result of a successful run ahead of the Games, where he made it to the finals of every tournament he played a year or so before reaching Athens. Not to forget the benefits of training in Italy with the likes of Luca Marini and Russell Mark.
In the final, UAE royal Shaikh Ahmed Almaktoum was in a league of his own. The heavyweight went on to win the gold, but the battle for the second and third position was intense.
The pressure reached a point where Rathore had to be on the mark in his last two shots to win silver. He managed that, ending up with a score of 179/200, and basked in the glory of a historic moment. It was India’s first individual Olympic silver, a first ever in shooting and remained the only medal for India in the 2004 Olympics.
“I always knew I had a chance but I needed to perform in the final. Fortunately, everything went well for me,” Rathore had been quoted as saying after the final.
India reaped the real benefits of Rathore’s feat in the ensuing years.
At Beijing 2008, Bindra went on to win the gold and at the 2012 London Olympics Gagan Narang and Vijay Kumar finished on the podium with their bronze and silver, respectively.
“Rathore changed me. His silver ensured that the gold medal became my possibility,” Bindra was quoted as saying by Olympics.com.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore's Olympic Silver Medal Victory! | Throwback Thursday
Despite drawing a blank at Rio 2016, the sport of shooting in India has reached a height where a traditional pistol and rifle powerhouse like China now lags behind India in the medals tallies at most international events.
The youngsters are delivering and topping the world-ranking charts consistently. The likes of Divyansh Singh Panwar, Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary, Angad Veer Singh Bajwa, Elavenil Valarivan and many more have delivered early in their careers. It’s a testament to the fact that Indian shooters are now among the favourites, including at the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo.
So there is reason enough to believe that what Rathore started at Athens 2004 may well touch its peak at Tokyo 2020.
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