Vinesh Phogat has ensured that India’s Olympic medal streak in wrestling , since Beijing 2008 and counting, continues as the 29-year-old assured herself and India a medal by reaching the final of the women’s 50kg freestyle, thus becoming the first female wrestler from India to have shot at gold.
Only two other wrestlers have made it to the final of a wrestling event at the Olympics before Vinesh with Sushil Kumar securing a silver at the 2012 London Olympics and Ravi Dahiya also finished as runner-up at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Here’s a look at the how the three Indian wrestlers made it to the the gold medal match in wrestling at the Olympics.
Sushil Kumar
Sushil Kumar was the only Indian to have two individual Olympic medals before PV Sindhu matched the feat at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Sushil’s first Olympic medal was a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sushil had lost his first bout of the tournament to Ukraine’s Andriy Stadnik but when the Ukrainian made the final, Sushil entered the repechage round. He eased past his opponents in the two repechage rounds to make the bronze medal match, where he won 3-1 against Kazakhstan’s Leonid Spiridonov.
At the 2012 London Olympics, Sushil was the flagbearer at the opening ceremony and India’s biggest medal hope. He had overcome severe body aches to make the final, where he couldn’t match up to his Japanese opponent. Sushil went past his Turkish, Uzbek and Kazak opponents into the final against Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu. He lost 3-0 in the final to bag the silver medal.
Ravi Dahiya
Ravi won India a medal on his debut appearance at the Olympics. He bagged a silver medal after a 4-7 loss to Russia’s Zavur Uguev in the Men’s 57kg freestyle final at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Ravi fought hard but the Russian was just too strong for him and despite his best efforts, he couldn’t overcome Uguev.
Ravi was first up against Colombian Oscar Tigreros and he easily beat him 13-2 to make the quarter-finals. He had another big victory in the last eight when he defeated Bulgaria’s Georgi Vangelov 14-4. His semi-final bout was a dramatic one where Ravi came from a 2-9 deficit against Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev to pin him and get a victory by fall.
Vinesh Phogat
Vinesh Phogat has become the third Indian wrestler to make an Olympic final, but more remarkably she is the first Indian female wrestler to fight for gold. With her win, Phogat seals a medal finish for India, and also becomes the first Indian female wrestler to compete for Gold in an Olympic final. Phogat took down Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez in the semi-final, after getting the better of Ukraine’s Oksana Livach in the quarterfinals. Phogat had stunned the wrestling world with a major upset in the first round of Women’s 50kg wrestling round of 16 upstaging the reigning Olympic gold-medallist Yui Susaki earlier in the day.
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Read More: The Three Indian Wrestlers to Have Reached an Olympic Final – News18
