Rio Olympics 2016 gave India new sporting icons in Dipa Karmakar, Sakshi Malik and P.V.Sindhu, but there were also several heartening stories of Indian players that went unnoticed in the race for medals. Few people know that India was represented by a part-time waiter at the racewalking event at the Rio Olympics.

    Fewer still know that he bested previous Olympic Medal winners in the competition and narrowly missed the bronze medal by less than a minute’s difference. In 2002, when his father passed away, 10-year-old Rawat saw his mother toil in the fields to make ends meet for the family of four children, including him. Rawat would work with his mother on the farm in the morning before heading to school about seven kms away by foot. In 2006, he took up a part-time job as a waiter at a small eatery near his hometown, Sattar, in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. With two sisters and a young brother at home, Rawat had a hard time....