“It’s been my dream since I was five years old to one day play in the Olympics,” said Rai as he departed for Beijing from here.

Son of Nachi and Sandra Rai, Rajiv was raised in Atlanta, Georgia and qualified for the Olympics after being awarded entry as one of the top 38 seeded players.

Coming up with some impressive results in 2006 when he clinched men’s singles gold medals at the Boston Open and the US national championships and was a member of the Thomas Cup team, Rai suffered a knee injury while training as a World Training Center team member at Saarbrucken, Germany in the same year.

However, he rebounded the following year with good results when along with US Open doubles specialist Tony Gunawan, Rai captured a bronze medal.

Rai has also been performing consistently at the international level, picking up a Pan American Championships doubles gold, singles bronze and team championship silver medal. Being the reigning US national singles champion and a World Championship team member this year is what eventually got the five foot 11 inch tall shuttler the nod as a Team USA member for the Beijing Olympics.

Rai trains at the Orange County Badminton Club in California while also working as a coach at the same club. He attends Santiago Canyon College (Orange, CA) where he is studying biology and plans to one day become an optometrist.

Coaches Halim Ho, Tony and Rudy Gunawan are optimistic about Rai’s chances though they know he will be facing heavy odds against the Asian stalwarts of the game.

The other team members in the US badminton squad who will compete in the doubles and women’s singles events are: Howard Bach, Eva Lee, Bob Malaythong and May Mangkalakiri.