Mumbai:Vijender Singh won India's first Olympic boxing medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and wrote his name in the history books. This event changed the face of Indian boxing and inspired many to take up the sport.
However, while talking during India's rising table tennis player Mudit Dani's online lockdown live chat show 'In The Sportlight', Vijender revealed how watching his fellow countryman Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore finishing on the podium at the 2004 Olympic Games inspired him and made him hungry for the metal. Shooter Rathore clinched India's first-ever Olympic medal in an individual category when he won silver in Athens where Vijender had appeared in his first Olympics at the age of 18.
"It's an amazing feeling to represent your country at the Olympics and for me 2004 was a lot like that as I was happy and satisfied being present there, witnessing the opening ceremony and watching the contingents from other countries; inspecting the villages and enjoying the food and atmosphere. But it was only when I saw the medal ceremony and saw Rajyavardhan Sing Rathore winning the silver medal is when the urge of winning a medal hit me too and the realisation that more than participation, it's winning the medal that matters," Vijender said.