NEW DELHI: A man of royal lineage, a path-breaking shooter, a hard-nosed administrator, but most significantly a life-long promoter of the Olympic movement. Randhir Singh personified quiet aura in the often noisy corridors of power in Indian sports.
The 79-year-old, who had been battling multiple health issues, died here on Wednesday, leaving behind a rich legacy of sporting excellence and administrative depth which made him the country's face in international forums.
Raja Randhir, as he was fondly called by his peers for being a descendent of former Maharaja of Patiala Bhupinder Singh, was remembered as a soft-spoken, and calm figure whose influence rarely needed a loud self-proclamation of importance.
Son of Maharaja Yadavindra Singh, Randhir Singh grew up in a household where cricket bats, polo mallets and shotguns were as much a part of life as royal protocol. But he went on to make his own mark through competition and service to sports.
He possessed an understanding of the Olympic movement and international sports diplomacy that few Indian administrators could match. It reflected in his decades-long friendship with former International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.
Singh had many firsts as an athlete and a sports administrator to his credit.
He was India's first shooting gold-medallist in Asian Games (1978 Bangkok, trap event) and achieved an unprecedented feat during the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima when he competed in shooting while serving as an executive committee member of the Olympic Council of Asia, the continent's governing body.
Add to that five Olympic appearances and an Arjuna Award in 1979.
He became the first Indian to become the Olympic Council of Asia president in 2024, a post he relinquished early this year due to his health issues.
Before that he was made acting OCA chief in 2021 and the COVID-delayed 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China was held on his watch.
Singh was an important figure in the global Olympic movement. He served as a full member of the IOC from 2001 to 2014. After that he was made an honorary member of the IOC. He died on Wednesday as an IOC honorary member.
Years before officially retiring from shooting in 1994, he had honed himself an administrator. His first step in sports administration was in 1984 when he was elected as joint secretary of the Indian Olympic Association.
He went on to become the secretary general of the IOA in 1987, a post he held till 2012, navigating the rough and tumble of international bad press that came with the controversy-marred 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games without a blemish on his personal record or integrity.
It was quite an achievement given that the likes of former IOA chief, the late Suresh Kalmadi, ended up jailed on allegations of corruption.
His equation with Kalmadi was a fascinating example of workplace cooperation despite underlying differences. Singh earned respect for maintaining his dignity and never acting beyond his brief.
If Kalmadi was the political force that shaped IOA's internal decision-making, Singh was the understated but influential institutional anchor.
A trusted confidante of then OCA president and Olympic movement heavyweight Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, he served as OCA Secretary General from 1991 to 2015.
In 2002, He was made Executive Council member of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), a collective body of the 206 National Olympic Committees recognised by the IOC.
Singh was easily one of the most recognisable sports administrators in India and was admired for his ability to drive consensus in the often fragmented administrative structure of Indian sports.
His shooting legacy has been kept alive by his daughter Rajeshwari, who is also a trap shooter and won a silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games besides a gold at the 2016 Asian Championships.
It was Singh who strongly argued before the Sports Ministry that Indian sports administrators needed longer tenures than those prescribed under the Sports Code, going against the public mood that demanded that there should age and tenure caps.
He believed that influence in world sport could not be built overnight and that Indian officials required continuity at home to earn credibility abroad.
In his view, only administrators who spent years leading national federations could eventually rise into influential positions within bodies such as the IOC, OCA and international federations, which he felt was essential if India wanted a stronger voice in global sport.
Long before India became an Olympic shooting powerhouse, Singh was among the country's pioneering trap shooters.
In the 1960s and 1970s, when shooting was considered a niche sport with limited infrastructure and little public attention, he represented India with distinction in international competitions.
He built a reputation as a technically gifted marksman and became part of an important generation, which also has the legendary Maharaja Karni Singh of Bikaner.