Brave Dahiya digs in for gold, finds silver Chhatrasal finds reason to cheer after dark days
A day after scripting gritty comeback in semis, young Haryana wrestler loses final to Russian Uguev
Ravi Dahiya was feeling miserable. He had become only the second Indian wrestler to win an Olympic silver, after Sushil Kumar in 2012, but the glint of the medal hanging from his neck was not enough to soften the pain of defeat. He did not celebrate the silver. He was so close to gold.
The 23-year-old wrestler from Haryana lost the final bout of the 57kg freestyle wrestling event to Russian Zavur Uguev, the twotime world champion and on the day, just a little bit superior to the young Dahiya, making his Olympic debut.
The previous day, Dahiya bounced back from the brink of defeat to pin two-time Worlds medallist Nurislam Sanayev in a thrilling semi-final.
Against Uguev, Dahiya got no such opportunity. The Russian was swift with his counters, and strong in defence. He opened a 2-0 lead through step-outs. Dahiya brought him down to draw parity. But Zavur scored another two points with a takedown even as Dahiya did well to avoid getting tangled.
In the second period, with Uguev leading 4-2, Dahiya stepped up the attack and looked for an opening. Even as he went searching for the win, Uguev, strong in defence, scored another three points with a fast counter. With one and a half minutes to go, there was enough time for Dahiya to mount a comeback. A takedown gave him two more points but that was all he could muster.
“Jis cheez ke liye aaye the, kami rahe gayi. Kuch kami rahe gayi mere me (I was not able to do what I came here to do. I fell short),” said Dahiya. “For two months, I have not spoken to my family, nor used my phone. I just wanted to give everything for the Olympics and win a gold medal. I didn’t even go home during lockdown. I was training in Chhatrasal Stadium.”
A silver in Tokyo has only added to the stature of wrestling as that rare sport outside of cricket where India has a strong global presence. Starting with Sushil’s bronze in Beijing 2008, India has now won a medal in every edition of the Games since.
“I can’t be satisfied by anything less than gold,” said Dahiya.
Dahiya remembers the August night of 2008 when Sushil, now in jail on murder charges, won his Olympic bronze. “When Sushil Kumar won the medal, I was small, but I went to see him,” Dahiya sad. “Later, Yogeshwar Dutt also won a medal (bronze, 2012). I have learned a lot from them. They inspired me to be at the Olympics and win a medal.”
Dahiya comes from Nahri village in Sonepat, which has a strong tradition of wrestling. “My father took me to Hansraj ji who trains young boys in the village. Hansrajji then brought me to Chhatrasal,” Dahiya said.
NEW DELHI: A mobile phone footage from Chhatrasal stadium sends shockwaves through the country. Sushil Kumar, the wrestling centre’s most illustrious pupil and arguably India’s greatest Olympian, is seen in a group of people assaulting a junior wrestler, Sagar Dhankad, who dies soon after. In a few days, Kumar is arrested.
For the modern-day cradle of Indian wrestling, the incident is a dark chapter in what is otherwise a glorious journey. Speculations swirl whether Chhatrasal will ever be the same again. A steady dribble of top players leaving Chhatrasal had already dented its reputation. Kumar’s arrest added another blow.
It took a little over three months and an Olympic silver medal by another Chhatrasal ward to show that the institution was far from gone. When Ravi Dahiya rose to the Tokyo Olympics podium with a silver medal in the 57kg, those watching it on TV at the facility in west Delhi must have felt a sense of pride and relief. They had found a new hero. Dahiya is the centre’s third Olympic medallist (Yogeshwar Dutt had won bronze in London) and that is an incredible feat.
But the list does not end here. Deepak Punia, who lost his 86kg bronze medal match, also started from this academy, as has Bajrang Punia – a top medal contender in 65kg. Neither of them train there any more.
For boys from Delhi, as well as the villages and towns that surround the capital who aspire to be wrestlers, Chhatrasal Stadium is the ultimate destination. They live here in cramped quarters packed with fellow wrestlers, living out of duffel bags, sleeping on mattresses lined up on the floor, and eagerly awaiting their fathers bringing them milk, fruits and ghee every morning to supplement their diets—that’s the quintessential Chhatrasal life. It’s the way Kumar came up, as did Dahiya.
Kumar was 14 when he first came to the stadium in 1997 and started training under 1982 Asian Games gold medallist Satpal Singh. By 2012, Chhatrasal became Indian wrestling’s equivalent of La Masia, the famous football academy of FC Barcelona. That year, two of its trainees returned with Olympic medals—kumar and Dutt. Another trainee, Amit Dahiya, became the youngest Indian to compete at the Olympics at 18. He made it to the quarter-finals.
Dahiya was already a trainee there at that time. He first came to Chhatrasal in 2008 to meet Kumar when the former wrestler had just come back with a bronze from Beijing. By 2010, a 12-year-old Dahiya was a resident student at the wrestling school.