Rahul Banerjee (born 15 December 1986) is an Indian Olympian and Arjuna Awardee archer.
Career
Banerjee started archery at the age of thirteen.[1] His sister Dola Banerjee is also an Olympic archer. His first international appearance was in Youth World Championship in 2004; he won a team silver medal, which was the first world level medal for Indian archers. He won several gold medals at the World Cups in 2008, 2009 and 2010, as well as an individual gold medal in the Asian Grand Prix in 2009–10. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, he won a gold medal in the individual recurve event and he is the First Indian Archer to win gold at CWG and a team bronze medal.[2] He won a team bronze at 2010 Asian Games.He has represented India at more than 50 international competitions including 1 Olympic Games, 2 Asian Games, 3 World Championship, 3 Asian Championship, 8 World Cups, 10 Asian Grand Prix, 2 SAF Games, 1 Commonwealth Games and many more. He was member of the Indian Archery team which was ranked No. 1 in the world in August 2010.
Rahul Banerjee was world ranking no.6 in Individual category in November 2008
On 21 June 2012, Banerjee qualified for the London Olympics by finishing second in the final qualification meet at Ogden, Utah, United States.[3] At the Olympics he finished 17th individually and 9th with the Indian team.[4]
He was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2011 by the Indian government for his outstanding contribution in the field of archery. He was honored by KHEL SAMMAN & KOLKATA SHRI AWARD by WB STATE GOVT. He has been appraised with SHERA BANGALI AWARD by the esteemed media house ABP ANANDA
Awards and recognition
The President, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil presenting the Arjuna Award for the year-2011 to Shri Rahul Banerjee for Archery, in a glittering ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on August 29, 2011.
Banerjee received the Arjuna Award in 2011.[5]
He was honored by KHEL SAMMAN & KOLKATA SHRI AWARD by West Bengal State Government.
Family
Rahul Banerjee married to Madhubanti Bhattacharjee in January 2017. In Feb. 2020, the couple had a baby girl, Bannvi.