Rajmond Debevec has won everything the world of shooting has to offer. He has won a gold and two bronze medals in rifle from eight Olympics. He has world championship medals, and has won 67 medals in World Cups, including 27 gold.
The 57-year-old Rajmond has been associated with shooting for 49 years, winning 41 gold, 32 silver and 42 bronze in the international arena.
It was a connoisseurs delight and education for young aspirants to watch him in an Instagram conversation with the World and Olympic medallist Gagan Narang.
Rajmond was wholesome in his praise for the young Indian shooters, who topped the medals table in the four World Cups and the World Cup Finals last year
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"I think, it is harder to make the Indian team than to win an Olympic gold," said Rajmond, as he praised Gagan for his part with the Gun for Glory Academy.
"You have a huge number of talented shooters. It is hard to follow them. Am not surprised," said Rajmond.
When Gagan asked him about sustaining his motivation for winning his first Olympic medal in his fifth Olympics and being ready to compete in his ninth, Rajmond said that initially the goal was only to compete in the Olympics when he was fascinated reading the magazines about the stars, "when there was no Internet and no smart phones".
"I have always been very ambitious. It was my personal character. I had a goal and had to fulfil it. When you climb a mountain, there is no retreat before you reach the top’’, he said, comparing his favourite pastime of climbing the mountains, with his shooting career.
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Rajmond remembered the fascinating journey in each Olympics, the wins and the thrilling losses, and so many side stories of amazing characters like Matthew Emmons who missed two successive Olympic medals with misfired last shots in the finals, after being in the lead.
He also confessed how he had thought that rifle prone shooting was ‘’for ladies’’, and how he focused on it as the best option to eventually win the bronze in the London Olympics with a spectacular final, when Joydeep Karmakar finished fourth.
He had won his Olympic gold in the rifle 3-position event in the Sydney Games in 2000, with a 4.6 point margin, after having taken a two-point lead in qualification with a score of 1177.
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