Rajeev Bagga Biography 
Rajeev Bagga is an Indian born deaf badminton player, who currently represents Britain. An Indian national champion, he reached main stage of the 1990 All England Open Badminton Championships, and quite interestingly he is the only deaf person to do so. He has an outstanding record in Deaflympics, World Games for the Deaf, and playing for his team since late 1980s, he earned 12 gold and remained singles champion at the Deaflympics from 1989 to 2001. In 1991, government of India honoured him with Arjuna award. He is also a recipient of many more recognitions. International Committee of Deaf Sports named him 'Deaflympian of the Century' for his outstanding record in Deaflympics.
He was born into an Army officer’s family on 6 April 1967. Rajeev Bagga permanently lost his hearing to a severe bout of meningitis when he was just 12 months old. He came from a supportive and sports-loving family, and most of his family members were related to some kind of sports, andplayed in some level of sport games. His mother was also a state-level badminton player. So his siblings and parents encouraged him since he was a young child. Bagga initially began playing a variety of racket games – table tennis, tennis, badminton and squash. He discovered himself to be an excellent player of squash and won Western India title and the National title at the age of 13, in the sub-junior category in 1981. But he later discontinued the game which gave more importance to eye sight, and moved to badminton.
As a badminton player, he played sub junior level for many years. He won Maharashtra state level championship five times in a row and became national level champion in 1991. Bagga is also a notable doubles player, and won the national championships in 1997. Vinod was his co-player. He remains active in sports, and won the 2008 All-England veteran men's singles. He also won the gold medal in the men's singles at the World Deaf Badminton Championships in 2003 and 2007, and many more tournaments.
Published: N/A
Updated: May 30, 2018
