In India’s Olympic history, wrestling is the second most successful sport in terms of medal return after hockey. Traditionally, Indians have been good at wrestling and Tokyo Olympics is the fourth consecutive Olympics when the Indian wrestlers have brought home at least one medal. Ravi Kumar Dahiya joins a list of five Indian wrestlers who have made the country proud at the biggest stage in the world of sport.
Ravi Kumar Dahiya is also the first man to win a medal for India in the Tokyo Olympics. Prior to Ravi, India won three medals – Mirabai Chanu got home a silver in weightlifting, PV Sindhu won a bronze medal in badminton and Lovlina Borgohain bagged a bronze in boxing.
Meet all the Indian wrestlers who have won India medals at the Olympics over the years. (Latest to oldest)
Ravi Kumar Dahiya
Ravi has won India a medal on his debut appearance at the Olympics. He bagged a silver medal after a 4-7 loss to Russia’s Zavur Uguev in the Men’s 57kg freestyle final. Ravi fought hard but the Russian was just too strong for him and despite his best efforts, he couldn’t overcome Uguev.
Ravi was first up against Colombian Oscar Tigreros and he easily beat him 13-2 to make the quarter-finals. He had another big victory in the last eight when he defeated Bulgaria’s Georgi Vangelov 14-4. His semi-final bout was a dramatic one where Ravi came from a 2-9 deficit against Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev to pin him and get a victory by fall.
Sakshi Malik
Sakshi Malik is the first Indian woman to win a wrestling medal at the Olympics. Sakshi was a late entrant in the Indian Olympics contingent for Rio 2016 but went on to win one of the only two medals won by the country in Rio. Sakshi’s bronze came through to the repechage rule. After winning her first two rounds, Sakshi came short against Russia’s Valeria Sergeyevna Koblova in the quarter-finals. However, Koblova made the final of the event which got Sakshi through to the repechage. She got a bye in the first round of repecharge, then beat Mongolia’s Purevdorjiin Orkhon 3-1 to enter the bronze medal match.
Sakshi pulled off a brilliant effort in the last minutes of the bout to register a 3-1 win over Kyrgystan’s Aisuluu Tynybekova and won a historic medal for the country.
Yogeshwar Dutt
When Yogeshwar Dutt went to the 2012 London Olympics, it was his third appearance at the Games and he won a bronze medal to mark two-medal finish in wrestling for India. Yogeshwar won his qualification bout but lost to Russia’s Besik Serodinovich Kudukhov in the Round of 16. However, the Russia made the final and Yogeshwar had an opportunity at bronze through repechage. He won his two repechage bouts to enter the bronze medal match, where he beat North Korea’s Ri Jong Myong in just 1:02 minutes to get home the elusive medal.
Sushil Kumar
Sushil Kumar was the only Indian to have two individual Olympic medals before PV Sindhu matched the feat this Olympics. Sushil’s first Olympic medal was a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sushil had lost his first bout of the tournament to Ukraine’s Andriy Stadnik but when the Ukrainian made the final, Sushil entered the repechage round. He eased past his opponents in the two repechage round to make the bronze medal match, where he won 3-1 against Kazakhstan’s Leonid Spiridonov.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Sushil was the flagbearer at the opening ceremony and India’s biggest medal hope. He had overcome severe body aches to make the final, where he couldn’t match up to his Japanese opponent. Sushil went past his Turkish, Uzbek and Kazak opponents into the final against Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu. He lost 3-0 in the final to bag the silver medal.
KD Jadhav
Wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav became India’s first individual Olympic medallist when he won the bronze medal in the men’s freestyle bantamweight category in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. The format of the competition was different back then and Jadhav won his first three rounds before not having to wrestling in the fourth round. He then lost his fifth and sixth round matches but still finished third. The Olympic medal, however, was a reward for the hardworking wrestler, who had to run all around to gather funds for his Olympic trip.
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