Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver medal at the Athens Olympic Games of 2004 in which event?

The correct answer is B, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav. Jadhav, a wrestler from Satara in Maharashtra, won the bronze medal in freestyle bantamweight wrestling at the Helsinki Olympic Games of 1952, and that was the first Olympic medal won by an individual athlete of independent India, all earlier medals having come to the men's hockey team. Option A is wrong because Sushil Kumar's medals came much later, a bronze at Beijing in 2008 and a silver at London in 2012, which made him the first Indian with two individual Olympic medals but not the first medallist. Option C is wrong because Guru Hanuman was a celebrated coach who received the Dronacharya Award and the Padma Shri; he trained wrestlers rather than competing at the Olympics. Option D is wrong because Yogeshwar Dutt won his bronze at the London Games of 2012.

The correct answer is B, Greco-Roman. In Greco-Roman wrestling a competitor may not seize the opponent below the waist and may not use the legs actively to trip or lock, so every attack must be made with the arms and the upper body and the style is famous for its high throws. Option A is wrong because freestyle wrestling permits the whole body to be held, including leg attacks such as the single-leg and double-leg takedown, and it is the only style in which women compete at the Olympic Games. Option C is wrong because sumo is a separate Japanese sport fought in a clay ring where the aim is to push the opponent out or make him touch the ground, and it is not an Olympic wrestling style. Option D is wrong because beach wrestling is a variant played on sand with its own simplified rules and is not the style defined by the waist restriction.

The correct answer is C, Sakshi Malik. Sakshi Malik of Rohtak in Haryana won the bronze medal in the 58 kilogram freestyle category at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games of 2016, coming back from behind in the last seconds of her repechage bout, and she thus became the first Indian woman wrestler to stand on an Olympic podium. Option A is wrong because Vinesh Phogat, though a Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist, had not won an Olympic medal. Option B is wrong because Geeta Phogat made history as the first Indian woman wrestler to qualify for the Olympic Games, at London in 2012, and as a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, but she did not win an Olympic medal. Option D is wrong because Babita Kumari's honours are Commonwealth Games medals, not an Olympic one.

The correct answer is C, 10 metre air rifle. Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men's 10 metre air rifle event at the Beijing Olympic Games of 2008, and it remains the first individual gold medal ever won by India at the Olympics; the only earlier golds had been won by the men's hockey team. Option A is wrong because the 25 metre rapid fire pistol is the event in which Vijay Kumar won a silver medal at London in 2012. Option B is wrong because double trap, a shotgun event, is where Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver at Athens in 2004, India's first individual silver in shooting. Option D is wrong because the 50 metre rifle three positions event, fired prone, standing and kneeling, is where Swapnil Kusale won a bronze medal at Paris in 2024.

The correct answer is B, Boxing. A southpaw is a boxer who stands with the right foot forward and leads with the right hand because the left is the stronger one, and below the belt describes an illegal punch landed under the waistline, for which the referee warns or disqualifies the offender. Option A is wrong because wrestling has its own vocabulary of fall, takedown, half nelson, gut wrench and technical superiority. Option C is wrong because shooting speaks of the bullseye, sighter shots, prone and kneeling positions, trap and skeet. Option D is wrong because fencing uses terms such as foil, epee, sabre, riposte, lunge and en garde. Other boxing terms worth remembering are the jab, the hook, the uppercut, the clinch and the knockout counted to ten.