Randhir Singh (sport shooter)


Raja Randhir Singh is a former Olympic-level trap and skeet shooter and now sports administrator. He was the representative for India on the International Olympic Committee along with Nita Ambani. He is a 1979 recipient of the Arjuna Award.

Family background

He was born to Raja Bhalindra Singh, son of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. He was educated in Col. Brown School, Dehra Dun and earned a B.A. in History from St. Stephen's College, Delhi. He is married to Rani Uma Kumari of Sirmur.
He comes from a family of influential sporting administrators. His uncle, Test cricketer Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, played an important part in lobbying for and then organizing the first Asian Games in 1951 in Delhi. His father Raja Bhalindra Singh was a member of the IOC from 1947 to 1992 and helped bring the 9th Asian Games back to New Delhi in 1982.

Career as shooter

He made his competitive senior shooting debut as an eighteen-year-old when he was part of the winning trap shooting team at the Indian National Championships in 1964. His team defended the title the next year, and he won his first national individual title in 1967 in skeet. He went on to win multiple titles at national level in both skeet and trap shooting.
He became the first Indian shooter to win continental gold at the 1978 Asian Games in Bangkok. On home soil four years later, he won team silver at the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi.
He competed at five Olympic Games from 1968 to 1984 in Mixed Trap. He was the second Indian, after Karni Singh, to compete at five Olympics. His best Olympic performance was 17th at the 1968 Olympics, two points behind Karni Singh and four points from bronze. He also competed at four Asian Games, winning a medal of each color.

Sports administrator

He was Founder Secretary General of the Afro-Asian Games Council, and helped lead the organization of the only Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad in 2003.
He was involved in bringing the 2010 Commonwealth Games to India, and had been the Vice Chairman of the Organizing Committee. He is the only senior office bearer of the controversial Organizing committee who has so far enjoyed clean image unlike many others.
He has been Secretary General of the Indian Olympic Association since 1987, Secretary General of Olympic Council of Asia since 1991, and member of the
International Olympic Committee from 2001 - 2014, and member of the Association of National Olympic Committees Executive Board since 2002. Recently he was re-elected for the sixth time the Secretary General of the OCA. He has also served as member of the World Anti-Doping Agency Foundation Board and on the following commissions: Olympic Games Study, Sport for All, Women and Sport, Coordination for the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010 ; Olympic Truce Foundation.
In 2000 he was awarded an honorary D.Litt. in sports science from Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior, India.