Olympics 2024: Aman Sehrawat, a man of few words but with voluminous ambitions

Paris: Aman Sehrawat is a man of few words and of fewer expressions. But in those extremely rationed thoughts and emotions, lies voluminous ambitions.

“The target was gold but I had to be content with bronze this time,” said the 21-year-old from Birohar, Haryana after winning the men’s freestyle 57kg bronze medal at the Paris Olympics following a superlative 13-5 win over Puerto Rico's Darian Cruz at Champ-de-Mars arena on Friday night.

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“I had to forget the semifinal defeat. I told myself, let it go and focus on next. I would like to say to the people of India that I will definitely win a gold for you in 2028 (Los Angeles Olympics),” added Sehrawat, who at 21 years and 24 days became India’s youngest individual medal winner at the quadrennial bash, bettering PV Sindhu’s record who was 21 years, one month and 14 days old when she won silver at the Rio Olympics 2016.

Sehrawat, orphaned at a very young age after his parents passed away in a space of four years, took up wrestling after being inspired by Sushil Kumar when the Indian wrestling legend won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2021. A deeply motivated nine-year-old Sehrawat asked his widowed father to take him to the world-famous Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi so that he could give wings to his ambitions.

Sehrawat’s father did as requested and the first thing the kid did upon seeing his icon at Chhatrasal was seek his blessing by touching his feet, typical of Indian customs. Now, with a bronze medal around his neck, Sehrawat not only wants to emulate his hero but go one better than him.

“Sushil pehlawan ji won two medals (bronze in 2008 Beijing, followed by silver in London), I will win in 2028 and then in 2032 also. My goal is to keep winning medals for the country. Wrestling is the only thing I love and I want to keep succeeding.”

Sehrawat, who used to share a room with a bunch of boys at Chhatrasal and only graduated to a single room status after winning a bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, said he’s happy to have made his late parents proud. “My parents left me even before I could become a wrestler. They don’t even know I’m a wrestler and an Olympian, a medal winner. I hope they are happy watching from above. I dedicate this medal to them and to everyone who has made my dream come true. My journey has been extremely hard but this medal wipes away a lot of that agony.”

Weighty issues

Maintaining weight has been a big problem for wrestlers at this Paris Games, especially for the medal rounds on the second day of an individual’s competition with quite a few of them failing their weigh-in. Just like compatriot Vinesh Phogat, who was disqualified after failing her weigh-in before a gold medal bout against Sarah Hildebrandt, Sehrawat too had a tough time in trying to reduce 4.5kg in 10 hours.

Soon after his semifinal loss against eventual gold medal winner Rei Higuchi, Sehrawat weighed 61.5kg. The youngster then spent the entire night running on a treadmill, five sessions in a sauna as well wrestling with sparring partners as he successfully managed to bring it down to 56.9kg, 100gm lesser than the stipulated weight before the weigh-in.

“We kept monitoring him continuously and were confident of bringing his weight under control as this is a regular routine for us,” said national coach Jagmander Singh. “But after what happened in the Vinesh fiasco, we were a little nervous and wanted to leave nothing to chance. It was a sleepless night but completely worth it.”

Definitely yes for Sehrawat, whose poverty-stricken lonely life could get an uplift finally.