Wrestling needs medals now more than ever

CHENNAI : From giving the country its first individual Olympic medallist 72 years ago to being the most consistent discipline at the Games since 2008, wrestling aptly is India’s second most successful sport at the quadrennial event after field hockey (12 medals — eight gold, one silver and three bronze). The Indian wrestlers have won seven medals (two silver and five bronze) at the Olympics so far and have been contenders at each Games in the last two decades.

The sport, however, is mired in controversy at the moment and needs an Olympic medal more than ever for its revival. To begin with, after more than a satisfactory show at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when Ravi Dahiya and Bajrang Punia won 57kg silver and 65kg bronze respectively, expectations soared with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) drawing a roadmap till the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

For the Paris Games, the plan was clear — anything less than four medals would have been a disaster. It all changed in January 2023 with the country’s top wrestlers including Olympic medallist Bajrang and Sakshi Malik (bronze in the 2016 Rio Games) staging an unprecedented protest against the WFI accusing its chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual exploitation. Such was the impact of the protest that it forced the world governing body, United World Wrestling, to intervene and suspend the WFI.