Arjuna awardee Jitu Rai is the first Indian athlete to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. He is currently ranked World No. 1 in 50m rifle shooting.
Rai grew up in Sankhuwa Sabha in Nepal where his family cultivated rice. When his father died in 2006, he had two choices – join either the British Army or the Indian Army, both of whom were recruiting for their Gorkha regiments. Rai had his heart set on going to England, but he could not reach the British Army base camp on the designated day. The next day, he enlisted in the Indian Army and joined the 11 Gorkha Regiment stationed in Lucknow.
In the army, he chose the sport of shooting because at the time, he was not strong enough to play other sports. Army coach Garvaraj Rai honed his talent early in his career. He currently trains under India’s pistol coach Pavel Smirnov.
The year 2014 was special – he won medals in the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, in a span of three months.
He became the first Indian to win two medals in a single World Cup competition. Rai achieved his highest ranking of World No. 1 in the 10m air pistol and No. 4 in the 50m pistol that year.
In 2015, Rai continued his winning spree at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship (silver medal) and ISSF World Cup (bronze medal).
His shooting idol is Vijay Kumar who won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. His favourite actor is Aamir Khan.