Sushil Kumar (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, a silver medal in the Men's 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2012 London Olympics and a bronze medal in the Men's 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which made him the first Indian to win back to back individual Olympic medals.[2] Sushil Kumar competed against Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan in the London Olympics finals. Kumar defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan in the repechage round to win the bronze in Beijing Olympics.[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 honour 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 belongs to a Jat family[7] who comes from the village Baprola[8] near Najafgarh in South West Delhi. Kumar's father Diwan Singh was a DTC 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.[9][10] He is a vegetarian.[11][12] Kumar is presently employed to the Indian Railways as Assistant Commercial Manager. [3] Career Kumar 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.[13] at the age of 18 he became 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, Sushil 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. Sushil 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 and won a bronze medal in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He also qualified for 2012 Summer Olympics taking place at London and won a silver medal by defeating a wrestler from Kazakhstan.He became the first Indian to win 2 olympic medals.[14] Sushil Kumar was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2006.

2008 Beijing Olympics

Out of the field of 21, 11 wrestlers including 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,[15] leaving his medal hopes hinging on the repechage. Sushil 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.[16] 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.[17]

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 semifinal 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.[18] In the quarterfinals Sushil Kumar defeated Muhammad Salman of Pakistan 10-0 in 46 seconds.

[edit]2012 London Olympics Sushil Kumar won the Silver medal of 66 kg Free Style Wrestling after losing the final to Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan.[19] Earlier he had entered the final by beating Kazakhastan's Akzhurek Tanatarov in the semifinal.[20] Sushil had also led the Indian contingent at the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games and was India's flag bearer for the London Olympics opening ceremony on July 27.[21]

Awards, Rewards and Recognition

Arjuna Award, 2005

For the bronze medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award (joint), India's highest sporting honour.

55 lakh (US$99,600) cash award and promotion to Assistant Commercial Manager from chief ticketing inspector by Railway Ministry (his employer)[22] 50 lakh (US$90,500) cash award from the Delhi Government.[22] 25 lakh (US$45,300) award by the Haryana Government.[22] 25 lakh (US$45,300) cash award by the Steel Ministry of India.[22] 5 lakh (US$9,100) cash award by R K Global.[22] 10 lakh (US$18,100) cash award by the Maharashtra State Government. 10 lakh (US$18,100) cash award from MTNL.

For the gold medal at 2010 World Wrestling Championships 10 lakh (US$18,100) cash award from Indian Railways (his employer) & out-of-turn promotion from his current position of Asst. Commercial Manager. 10 lakh (US$18,100) cash award from Sports Authority of India, (Government of India). 10 lakh (US$18,100) cash award from the Delhi Government

For the silver medal at 2012 London Olympics 2 crore (US$362,000) cash reward from the Delhi Government 1.5 crore (US$271,500) cash reward from the Haryana Government 0.75 crore (US$135,750) cash reward from the Indian Railway Land area in Sonipat for Wrestling academy by the Haryana Government. 10 lakh (US$18,100) cash award from ONGC.[23]

Nationality

Indian

Born

May 26, 1983 (age 29)[1] Baprola, Delhi

Height

166 cm (5 ft 5 in)

Sport

Country

India

Sport

Wrestling

Event(s)

66 kg freestyle

Club

NIS, Delhi

Coached by

Satpal Padamshree, Yashvir Singh

Medal record[hide] Competitor for India Men's Freestyle Wrestling Olympic Games Silver 2012 London Bronze 2008 Beijing World Championships Gold 2010 Moscow Commonwealth Championship Gold 2003 London Gold 2005 Cape Town Gold 2007 London Gold 2009 Jalander Commonwealth Games Gold 2010 Delhi Asian Championships Gold 2010 New Delhi Silver 2007 Kyrgyzstan Bronze 2003 New Delhi Bronze 2008 Jeju Island

66 kg 66 kg 66 kg 60 kg 66 kg 66 kg 66 kg 66 kg 66 kg 66kg 60 kg 66 kg

Updated on 13 August 2012.