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Sushil Kumar

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Sushil Kumar Solanki
Personal information
NationalityIndian
Born (1983-05-26) May 26, 1983 (age 41)[1]
Baprola, Najafgarh Delhi
OccupationSportsman (Wrestler)
Height166 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Medal record
Representing  India
Men's Freestyle Wrestling
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing 66 kg
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2010 Moscow 66 kg
Commonwealth Championship
Gold medal – first place 2003 London 60 kg
Gold medal – first place 2005 Cape Town 66 kg
Gold medal – first place 2007 London 66 kg
Gold medal – first place 2009 jalander 66 kg
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2010 Delhi 66 kg
Asian Championships
Gold medal – first place 2010 New Delhi 66 kg
Silver medal – second place 2007 Kyrgistan 66kg
Bronze medal – third place 2003 New Delhi 60 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Jeju Island 66 kg

Sushil Kumar Solanki (Template:Lang-hi, born May 26, 1983[1]) is an Indian World Champion wrestler who won the gold medal in the 66 kg freestyle competition at the FILA 2010 World Wrestling Championships and a 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 in wrestling, and the first since K D Jadhav's bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.[3] On July 2009, he received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna - India's highest honor for sportspersons.[4] On 3 October 2010, Sushil Kumar was the final baton bearer who handed the Queen's Baton to Prince Charles in the Queen's Baton Relay for the 2010 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.[5][6]

Biography

Sushil Kumar comes from the village Baprola in Delhi. Kumar's father Diwan Singh Solanki 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.[7][8] He is a vegetarian.[9][10]

Kumar is presently employed by the Indian Railways as a Assistant Commercial Manager.[3]

Career

Solanki 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.[11] at the age of 18 he become state champ.

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.

Sushil Kumar was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2006.

2008 Beijing Olympics

Out of the field of 21, 11 wrestlers including Kumar obtained a bye to the 1/8 round. He lost to Andriy Stadnik from Ukraine in the first round of the 66 kg freestyle wrestling event,[12] 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.[13] 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.[14]

2010 World Wrestling Championships, Moscow

Sushil Kumar created history when he became the first Indian to win a gold medal at FILA 2010 World Wrestling Championships held in Moscow on 12 September 2010.

Sushil Kumar beat local hope & crowd favourite Alan Gogaev of Russia 3-1 in the finals for the gold in the 66 kg freestyle wrestling category. Earlier, he had won a thrilling semi-final match against European champion Jabrail Hasanov of Azerbaijan 4-3 to make it to the final (He scored a 2 point move in the last 5 seconds to come from 2-3 behind). After getting a bye in the first round, Sushil had routed Akritidis Anastasios of Greece 6-0 in the second round, beat Martin Sebastian of Germany 4-1 in the pre-quarters & demolished Mongolian Buyanjav Batzorig 9-1 in the quarter-finals.

2010 Commonwealth Games, Delhi

Sushil Kumar won gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi on 10 October 2010. He beat Heinrich Barnes of South Africa 7-0 in the finals in the 66 kg freestyle wrestling category. The South African wrestler could not endure more than three and half minutes in front of Sushil. In fact the bout had to be stopped by the referee in the second round. Earlier, in the semifinals, Sushil defeated Famara Jarjou of the Gambia 3-0 in a record 9 seconds.[15] In the quarterfinals Sushil Kumar defeated Muhammad Salman of Pakistan 10-0 in 46 seconds.

Awards, Rewards and Recognition

For the bronze medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics
  • Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award (joint), India's highest sporting honour.
  • 55 lakh cash award and promotion to Assistant Commercial Manager from chief ticketing inspector by Railway Ministry (his employer)[16]
  • 50 lakh cash award from the Delhi Government.[16]
  • 25 lakh cash award by the Haryana Government.[16]
  • 25 lakh cash award by the Steel Ministry of India.[16]
  • 5 lakh cash award by RK Global Shares and Securities Limited.[16]
  • 5 lakh cash award by the Maharashtra State Government.
  • 10 Lakh cash award from MTNL.
For the gold medal at 2010 World Wrestling Championships

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Athlete Biography: Sushil Kumar". The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
  2. ^ a b "Kumar claims 63kg bronze". The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
  3. ^ a b c Masand, Ajai (2008-08-20). "Meet Sushil, the shy guy". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  4. ^ Mary Kom, Vijender and Sushil get Khel Ratna
  5. ^ CBC, 2010 Commonwealth Games, Opening Ceremonies, airdate 3 October 2010, 9:00am-12:30pm (Eastern), circa 2h20m mark, CBC Television main network
  6. ^ "CWG Opening ceremony: Live Blog", Geetika Rustagi, 3 October 2010 (accessed 5 October 2010)
  7. ^ Ganesan, Uthra (2008-08-21). "Najafgarh hails golden bronze boy". Express India. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  8. ^ "Sushil puts Boprala on wrestling map of the world". Sify. 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2006-04-21.
  9. ^ Sengupta, Somini (2008-08-25). "3 Olympic medals for a new India". The New York Times.
  10. ^ "A sporty edge". The Telegraph.
  11. ^ Chakravertty, Shreya (2008-08-21). "20 to a room, two to a bed: This is where the medal came from". The Indian Express. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  12. ^ "Grappler Sushil Kumar wins bronze". The Times Of India. 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
  13. ^ "Bout Result Men's FR 66 kg Bronze /Bout No.92 /Mat B". The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
  14. ^ Sengupta, Abhijit (2008-08-28). "Lessons from Beijing". The Hindu. Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  15. ^ "Somdev Devvarman wins 29th CWG gold for India". The Times of India. 10 October 2010. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  16. ^ a b c d e "Rewards pour in for Sushil Kumar". The Hindu. 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2008-08-20.

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