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Male Indian wrestlers had won two medals at the last Summer Olympic Games but only one will be representing India at Paris 2024 — Aman Sehrawat. read more
 "Who is Aman Sehrawat, India’s sole hope in men’s wrestling?")
Aman Sehrawat is the only Indian male wrestler to secure quota for this year's Paris Olympics. Image credit: X/@Media_SAI
India has a glorious history in wrestling. In the early 1900s, The Great Gama ruled the wrestling scenes in India and made the country proud on the international stage. It is also the sport that gave India its first individual medal at the Olympics. After Norman Pritchard won two silver medals at the 1900 Paris, it was wrestler KD Jadhav who won a bronze (54kg) at the 1952 Helsinki Games and became the first individual medallist of independent India.
It was followed by a long drought but the jinx was broken by Sushil Kumar in 2008 Beijing when the wrestler from Delhi’s popular Chhatrasal Stadium’s akhada won bronze in the 66kg category. Sushil bettered the colour of his medal at the 2012 Olympics, winning a silver, while Yogeshwar Dutt, another Chhatrasal Stadium product, captured a bronze (60kg).
Sushil’s 2008 medal sparked a wrestling evolution in India and the country has won a medal in the sport at every Summer Olympic Games ever since.
In 2016 Rio, Sakshi Malik won bronze (58kg), while Chhatrasal Stadium’s Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg) and Bajrang Punia (65kg) won silver and bronze respectively at Tokyo 2020.
Overall, wrestling has been India’s second-highest medal-winning sport (7) in the Olympics after field hockey (12). Six of those seven medals have been won by male wrestlers.
India had three male wrestlers at the Tokyo Olympics, and they’ve won at least one medal in three of the last four Olympics. However, there will only be one male wrestler representing India at Paris 2024 — Aman Sehrawat.
Who is Aman Sehrawat?
Aman Sehrawat became the toast of the nation in May this year after he became the first and only male wrestler to qualify for Paris Olympic Games 2024 by securing three wins at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Istanbul. In an impressive display, Aman scored 34 offensive points while away only eight defensive points.
At the same qualifier, former world junior champion, Deepak Punia, who missed out on a bronze at Tokyo 2020 by a whisker, was knocked out with a first-round defeat.
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The 20-year-old Aman, however, faced competition from Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi, who also competes in 57kg, for a spot in India’s Olympics team but the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) decision not to hold trials confirmed his ticket to Paris.
Ravi, along with Tokyo bronze medallist Bajrang, was eliminated in the trials for the Olympic qualifiers. However, they could have had a chance if the WFI had held separate trials for the Olympics.
Current form
Having already fought off some tough competition at home, Aman feels hard work will work in his favour.
“Bhagwan will decide what medal. Medal-mudal toh baad ki soch hai, abhi mujhe bas mehnat karni hai (I’m not thinking about a medal, right now I just have to work hard),” he told ESPN.
He also has some experience from the world stage that can come in handy in Paris.
In 2022, he won the World Under-23 Wrestling Championships and last year he captured the Asian Championships gold in Astana. He also won bronze at the Asian Games last year and this year in January, Aman won gold at the Zagreb Open Ranking Series tournament.
Just last month, he clinched silver at the Budapest Ranking Series and collected enough points to be seeded sixth for the Paris Olympics.
The seeding, however, may not help him a lot as there is a possibility of a quarter-final clash against Armenia’s Arsen Harutyunyan who is a three-time World Championships bronze medallist, but Aman who shifted to the Chhatrasal Stadium at the age of 10 from Haryana, hopefully knows what it takes to win a medal at the biggest stage, just like the other famous alumni of his akhada.
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English (US) ·