Katulu Ravi Kumar

The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) selected Ravi Kumar (69kg) to represent the country in the London Olympics. Promising Ravi is all set to end India’s Olympic medal drought in weightlifting after Karnam Malleswari’s bronze medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

India have earned the first Olympic quota place in the men's weightlifting after a gap of 12 years since the 2000 Sydney Games.

Indian weightlifters had earned two quota places for London Olympics - one each in men's and women's sections - in the Senior Asian Championships at Pyeongtaek, South Korea.

India finished fifth in the men's team standings with 134 points and fourth in the women's section with 93 points to earn the quota places.

Katulu Ravi Kumar Medal Record

2007: 1 silver medal at the Asian Junior Men's Weightlifting Championship in Jordan
2009: 3 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Penang, Malaysia
2010: 3 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India
2011: 3 bronze medals in the Senior Weightlifting Championship at Tongling, China.

Ravi Kumar, who hails from Orissa and was originally a bodybuilder, took up weightlifting just three years before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Ravi scripted history by breaking the Commonwealth Games record after lifting a record total weight of 321 kg (146 kg in snatch and 175 kg in clean and jerk). He surpassed the previous Games record of 310 kg set by Cameroon's Venecelas Dabaya.

Ravi, who has won lots of state, national and international awards in a very short span of time, is the seventh Oriya to have been bestowed with the prestigious Arjuna award.