Sushil Kumar: How Olympic Medalist Became Most Wanted

Beijing and London Olympics worked to change the Indian identity in the world of sports.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics can be called a game changer in the Indian context, because in this event, India left behind its best performance of the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. In 1952, India won a total of two medals, thanks to the gold medal of hockey and the bronze medal of KD Jadhav in wrestling.

After 56 years and 14 Olympic Games, India showed the charisma of winning three medals in any one Olympics in Beijing. While Abhinav Bindra made history by winning gold medals for India in shooting, bronze medals were also won in individual events of wrestling and boxing.

Four years later, in the London Olympics, India showed the charisma of winning six medals. India got silver and bronze medals in shooting and wrestling. While India got bronze medals in boxing and badminton.

From Beijing Olympics to London Olympics, Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar became India’s most successful athlete. By winning medals in two consecutive Olympics, he managed to make a place in the legends.

Sushil Kumar remains the only Indian player in Olympic history to win two individual medals till date. While he won the bronze medal in Beijing, he won his silver medal in the London Olympics.

Then hardly anyone would have thought that the Olympic legend would become the most wanted person before the Tokyo Olympics were organized. The honor of the Olympic medal has been tarnished by the murder charge against Sushil Kumar.

Two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar is currently lodged in Mandoli jail for the murder of former junior wrestling champion Sagar Dhankhar on the intervening night of May 4-5, 2021 at Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi.

Sushil Kumar was arrested from Delhi’s Mundka after absconding from police custody for 18 days. While he was on the run, the Delhi Police had also issued a look out notice against him.

When Sushil Kumar won the silver medal in the 2012 London Olympics, the Sheila Dikshit government of Delhi called a special cabinet meeting to increase the prize money of Rs 1 crore announced earlier to the Olympic medalist wrestler to 20 million. Last month, when Sushil Kumar was on the run, the Delhi Police had announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for those providing information about him.

Sushil Kumar, a resident of Delhi, had set a new record in the history of Indian wrestling by winning two consecutive Olympic medals.

Unfortunately, India’s most successful wrestler was arrested on 23 May, the world of wrestling has been celebrating this day as World Wrestling Day. Last year, United World Wrestling (UWW), the organization that governs wrestling around the world, started a social media campaign called #ThisIsWrestling.

In this, wrestlers, coaches, officials and fans from all over the world posted their favorite pictures. The pictures that were liked the most included the picture posted by Sushil Kumar.

He had posted a picture of the semi-final match of the 66 kg freestyle category at the 2012 London Olympics. He had a match with Kazakhstan wrestler Akzurek Tanatarov, Sushil won the match and reached the final and he finally won the silver medal. This proved to be India’s best performance in wrestling in the Olympics.

This time on May 23, the picture that was discussed the most in the world of wrestling was also the picture of Sushil Kumar, in which his face was covered with a towel and he was in police custody.

Slip of a committed boxer

Sushil Kumar was a wrestler of the guru-shishya tradition, senior-junior tradition in wrestling, once his life was devoted only to wrestling.

Talk to Sushil Kumar’s coach and anyone who wrestles with him, they tell that whether it is raining or freezing cold or scorching heat, Sushil will sit on the earthen arena or mats of Chhatrasal Stadium. He was always seen improving his skills.

If for some reason he could not practice on some day, he used to make up for it from the morning of the next day.

Sushil’s grandfather died in 2007, he dreamed of making Sushil an Olympic champion. A fellow wrestler of Sushil said, “When Sushil got the news of Dada’s passing, he was completely upset, but had returned to the stadium after the funeral, he was again on the mat for practice the next morning. “

“When he returned after winning the Olympic medal, he had to go to many places to attend the felicitation ceremony, but this also did not affect a single day of training.”

Sushil Kumar was born in a normal family, his father was a bus driver, but after winning the bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he became an overnight star.

Before the Beijing Olympics, he had never even worn jeans, let alone a car and a bike, he did not even ride a bicycle. But the success of the Beijing Olympics changed his and his family’s socioeconomic status.

He was getting all that he had not even dreamed of. With the coming of economic prosperity, lifestyle and living standards also started getting better. After the Beijing Olympics, he started learning English words, using a laptop. They got an SUV and they started appearing in commercials too.

When they got engaged, many big leaders including Rahul Gandhi attended it. Not only leaders but Bollywood stars also appeared in the wedding. Jackie Shroff then attended a traditional wedding ceremony at Sushil Kumar’s house.

Disorientation after the London Olympics

Even after all this, Sushil Kumar’s attention did not go astray, his focus remained on his game and this was a big reason for his success in the London Olympics. What kind of simple person Sushil was, it can be gauged from one incident.

After winning the medal in the Beijing Olympics, he was to participate in an exhibition match with the Pakistani wrestler in New Delhi. Just before the start of the match, a little girl asked Sushil for an autograph, since the match was about to begin, Sushil told the girl that he would definitely get an autograph after the match was over.

After winning the match easily, Sushil kept looking for that girl for 15 minutes, when she could not find the girl, he got very upset and started saying that autograph should have been given at that time.

Before the London Olympics, Sushil was completely devoted to wrestling. However, they got married in 2011, a year before the London Olympics. Then critics had said that Sushil’s career would end after marriage.

These fears were fueled when Sushil failed to secure an Olympic berth in the Asian qualifiers. Going into the final qualifiers, Sushil could get a ticket for the Olympics. After this, he did not even visit his wife for the next three-four months, the whole focus was on preparations.

During this, he went to his house only once for a few hours, that too his signature was necessary on some important papers. Proving his critics wrong, he won the silver medal in the London Olympics. After this he joined the living legends of the Indian sports world.

Sushil started resolving property disputes

After the name and fame of this success, his attention shifted from wrestling and he started focusing more on other things. Due to this, the most wanted form of Sushil, who was once a legend in a few years, came to the fore.

In the last few years, his performance in the game continued to decline. In lieu of practice, Sushil Kumar started appearing in social events with a dozen armed guards. A coach who had known Sushil Kumar for the past 15 years said, “The thought of being a Baahubali took Sushil to another world. He started mediating financial and property disputes. Later on, he also started solving them directly.”

“His association with the unwanted people had started increasing but Sushil had faith in the Guru-Shishya tradition. When he met in the Senior National Championship held in Uttar Pradesh this year, he gave him a lot of respect. This did not happen only with me, but with me. His behavior with every coach was the same. He was generous in taking photographs or giving autographs with new wrestlers. Even in the world of wrestling, people still cannot believe that Sushil is in jail for murder.”

Sushil Kumar’s alleged involvement in the Sagar Dhankhar murder case has also tarnished the image of wrestling, the sport that had the highest medal hopes at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, is not discussed anywhere. The importance and respect of the Olympic medal will remain, but Sushil Kumar has been questioned forever.