Sushil Kumar: Only Indian Wrestler to Win Medals at Two Olympics

Sushil Kumar won a bronze medal at Beijing 2008 and a silver London 2012.

File picture of Sushil Kumar

(Photo: Reuters)

(The article is being republished from The Quint's archives on the occasion of Sushil Kumar’s birthday. It was first published on 16 July 2016)

Sushil Kumar is one of the most talented wrestlers who represented India at the Olympics.

Kumar began his training at Chhatrasal Akhada at the age of 14. His first success came in 1998 when he won a gold at the World Cadet Games. He followed this up with a gold at Junior Asian Wrestling Championship in 2000.

In 2004, he represented India at the Summer Olympics in Athens. This was his first Olympics and Kumar failed to make a mark as he stood 14th in his category.

But things took a turn for better in 2008. In the Beijing Olympics, Kumar bagged a bronze. During the tournament, Kumar won three fights in a span of 70 minutes. He did not even have a masseur by his side and still managed to come out on top.

He was able to improve his performance in 2012 London Olympics and took home a silver medal. He also became the first Indian wrestler to win a medal at two separate Olympics.

Unfortunately, Sushil Kumar wasn’t a part of the Indian wrestling contingent at the 2016 Rio Olympics. After bagging the 74 kg Olympic quota berth with a World Championships bronze in 2015, Narsingh Yadav was selected by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to represent India at the Rio Games. But 10 days days before the Olympics, Narsingh, was handed provisional suspension after he tested positive for a banned substance and WFI replaced Narsingh with Praveen Rana for Rio Olympics.

Apart from his heroics in the Olympics, Sushil Kumar has won three gold medals for India at three consecutive Commonwealth Games.

Kumar won gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi after he beat Heinrich Barnes 7–0 in the finals in the 66 kg freestyle wrestling category. The bout was stopped by the referee in the second round.

In 2014 at Glasgow, Kumar defeated Qamar Abbas in the 74 kg final to win the gold medal in 107 seconds by fall.

This year in Gold Coast in Australia, Kumar again won the gold in 74 kg category after beating South Africa’s Johannes Botha in the final that lasted only for 80 seconds .

Video editor: Mohd Ibrahim