Few Indians wore so many sporting hats so effortlessly as Raja Randhir Singh

May 27, 2026
7:09 pm

Born in Patiala on October 18, 1946, he belonged to a family where sport was an inheritance. His uncle, Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, played Test cricket for India; his father, Raja Bhalindra Singh, also played first-class cricket for Cambridge and was an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member from 1947 to 1992. Randhir, who graduated from Delhi’s St Stephen’s College, made shooting his arena.

Randhir was among India’s earliest international regulars. He represented India at five Olympics — Mexico 1968, Munich 1972, Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 — after being a reserve shooter at Tokyo 1964. His finest hour came at the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games, where he won trap gold, becoming the first Indian shooter to win an Asian Games gold medal.

Years later, Randhir recalled the closing moments of that Bangkok final with amusement. He had built such a commanding lead that members of the Indian contingent and reporters began celebrating before the event was over. The noise distracted him, he missed a target, and he snapped at them: “Keep quiet. Let me finish at least.”

He added bronze in individual trap and silver in team trap at the 1982 Delhi Asian Games, and competed at four Asian Games in all, his last being Hiroshima 1994. By then, he had already crossed into administration, the sphere where his influence would become far greater.

Randhir became IOA joint secretary in 1984 and served as IOA secretary general from 1987 to 2012 — a remarkable 25-year run during which Indian sport lurched through political battles, Olympic suspensions, administrative infighting and globalisation. He was also secretary general of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) from 1991 to 2015, later becoming acting president in 2021 and, in 2024, the first Indian elected president of the OCA.

His rise mirrored the arc of Indian sport itself. His father, Raja Bhalindra Singh, had helped bring the 1982 Asian Games to Delhi; the son became one of the key Indian figures in international Olympic diplomacy during the decades that followed economic liberalisation. Randhir mastered the politics of federations, lobbying and continental alliances.

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Inside the IOA and OCA, Randhir developed a reputation as a consensus-builder who knew every corridor of Olympic politics, from Delhi to Lausanne to Kuwait. His longevity itself became a measure of his influence: few administrators survived as many changes in governments, federations and Olympic leaderships. Even critics acknowledged his extraordinary network within Asian sport.

One of the defining stretches of his career came around the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, when he emerged as one of India’s principal sporting power-brokers internationally. And he was among the few who emerged from the CWG debacle with reputation intact.

His authority at the continental level became evident in 2021, when Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah stepped aside as OCA president after legal troubles in Switzerland. Randhir was chosen acting president largely because he was seen as the organisation’s senior-most institutional figure — the steady hand in a turbulent moment.

Away from shooting ranges and boardrooms, Randhir retained traces of old Patiala in another enduring passion: food. He often spoke about how cooking and classical music formed the rhythm of evenings in the Patiala royal household. And he spoke passionately about the process of cooking itself – the royal household of Patiala, he once said, was a space where the men cooked, experimented and preserved recipes across generations. Randhir took particular pride in archiving that inheritance, and just before the pandemic began collecting more than 1,000 recipes from royal kitchens. The recipes ranged from multiple variations of pulaos and shammi kebabs to slow-cooked dum preparations, game meats and dishes influenced by Afghan, Mughal and colonial cuisines.

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The culinary project also offered a revealing glimpse into Randhir himself. His friends in Indian sport often remembered him as a classic foodie and generous host who preferred long dinner-table conversations over formal meetings. In many ways, his administrative style reflected that world too — informal, relationship-driven and built as much on personal warmth as institutional authority.

He was also unusual among Indian sports administrators in one important respect: he had truly been an athlete first. Before specialising in trap shooting, he played cricket in school and college, and later maintained interests in golf, squash and swimming. That background gave him credibility with competitors in a system often criticised for being dominated by career bureaucrats.

In the end, Raja Randhir Singh became more than a shooter, more than an IOA official, even more than an OCA president. He became a bridge figure across eras — from princely India to professional sport, from shooting down clay targets to navigating Olympic boardrooms in Lausanne. Few Indians occupied so many layers of sport for so long, and fewer still carried that world with such effortless ease.

Shooting career:

Olympics (5): Mexico 1968, Munich 1972, Montreal 1976, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984. (Reserve shooter at Tokyo 1964).

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Asian Games: Bangkok 1978 – Individual Gold Medal in trap shooting; New Delhi 1982 – Individual Bronze Medal in trap shooting and team silver); Seoul 1986 and Hiroshima 1994.

Commonwealth Games: Edmonton 1978