Sushil Kumar (wrestler)
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IndiaSushil Kumar (Hindi: सà¥à¤¶à¥€à¤² कà¥à¤®à¤¾à¤°, born May 26, 1983[1]) is an Indian wrestler who won the bronze medal in the Men's 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[2] Kumar defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan in the repechage round to win the bronze.[2] This was the second medal for India at the Beijing Olympics after shooter Abhinav Bindra claimed the first ever individual Olympic gold medal for the country in the 10 m Air Rifle event. This was also the second medal for India in wrestling, and the first since K D Jadhav's bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.[3]
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[edit] Biography
Sushil Kumar hails from the village of Baprola in the Najafgarh suburb of the National Capital Territory of Delhi near the border with Haryana. Kumar's father Diwan Singh was an MTNL bus driver and mother Kamla Devi a housewife. He was inspired to take up wrestling by his cousin Sandeep and his father who was himself a pehlwan (wrestler). Sandeep quit wrestling as the family could only support one wrestler. Kumar trained at the akhada (wrestling school) in the Chhatrasal Stadium from the age of 14. With minimal funds and poor training facilities for wrestling in India, even for the 2008 Olympic team, his family made sure he obtained the necessary dietary supplements by sending him tinned milk, ghee and vegetables.[4][5]
Kumar is presently employed by the Indian Railways as a Chief Ticketing Inspector.[3]
[edit] Career
Kumar started training at the Chhatrasal Stadium's akhada at the age of 14. Trained at the akhada by Indian pehlwans Yashvir and Ramphal, and later by Arjuna awardee Satpal and then at the Railways camp by coach Gyan Singh,[3] Sushil endured tough training conditions which included sharing a mattress with a fellow wrestler and sharing a dormitory with twenty others.[6]
His first success came at the World Cadet Games in 1998 where he won the gold medal in his weight category. He followed this up with a gold in the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship in 2000.
Moving out of the junior competition, Kumar won the bronze medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships in 2003 and followed that up with a gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships. Kumar placed fourth in the World Championships in 2003, but this went largely unnoticed by the Indian media as he fared badly in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, in the 60 kg class placing 14th. He won gold medals at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in 2005 and 2007. He ranked seventh in the 2007 World Wrestling Championships, but managed to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He followed this up with a Bronze in the Asian Wrestling Championships, before heading for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Kumar was awarded the Arjuna Award, in 2006.
[edit] Beijing Olympics
Out of the field of 21, 11 wrestlers including Kumar obtained a bye to the 1/8th round. He lost to Andriy Stadnik from Ukraine in the first round of the 66kg freestyle wrestling event,[7] leaving his medal hopes hinging on the repechage. Kumar defeated American Doug Schwab in the first repechage round and Belarusian Albert Batyrov in the second repechage round. In the bronze medal match on 20 August, 2008 Kumar beat Spiridonov 3:1, with scores of 2-1, 0-1, 2-0 in the three rounds.[8] Sushil Kumar disclosed that he had no masseur during the three bouts he won within a span of 70 minutes to take the bronze. The team manager Kartar Singh who is a former Asian Games medallist acted as the masseur for him.[9]
[edit] Awards and recognitions
- For the bronze medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics
