Raju Rai
| Raju Rai | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Birth name | Rajiv Kumar Rai | ||||||||||||
| Country |
 United States | ||||||||||||
| Born |
3 February 1983 Lawrenceville, Georgia | ||||||||||||
| Residence | Irving, California | ||||||||||||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 80 kg (180 lb) | ||||||||||||
| Handedness | Right | ||||||||||||
| Coach | Tony Gunawan | ||||||||||||
Medal record
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| BWF profile | |||||||||||||
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Rajiv Kumar "Raju" Rai (born February 3, 1983 in Lawrenceville, Georgia) is an American badminton player of Indian descent.[1] He won a bronze medal, along with his partner Mesinee Mangkalakiri, in the mixed doubles at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[2] Rai is also a member of Orange County Badminton Club in Anaheim, California, and is coached and trained by former Olympic doubles champion Tony Gunawan (2000), who is currently playing for the United States.[3]
Rai qualified for the men's singles at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, after he was ranked sixty-eighth in the world, and awarded an entry as one of the top 38 seeded players by the Badminton World Federation. He received a bye for the second preliminary round before losing out to Finland's Ville Lång, with a score of 9–21 and 16–21.[4][5]
Rai is a former coach of Bellevue Badminton Club, and also, an athlete director for the U.S. national badminton team.[2] He, along with fellow Olympian Bob Malaythong, currently coach the top junior players in the United States at California Badminton Academy in Fremont, California.
References
- ↑ "Raju Rai". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- 1 2 "USA Badminton Announces New Board of Directors". Team USA. 14 April 2009. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ↑ Rao, Sam (5 August 2008). "Another Indian-American books berth". The Indian Express. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ↑ "Men's Singles Round of 32". NBC Olympics. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ↑ Miller, Jeff (11 August 2008). "O.C. badminton drought continues with Rai loss". The Orange County Register. Retrieved 23 February 2013.