Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat has grabbed headlines as he clinched his maiden Olympic medal with bronze in the men's 57kg freestyle wrestling at the Paris Olympics 2024. Sehrawat won India's fifth bronze medal and the sixth overall with a 13-5 win over Darian Cruz of Puerto Rico.
The 21-year-old missed out on a chance of securing at least a silver medal for India after losing to Rei Higuchi of Japan. However, Aman Sehrawat received another shot at winning his maiden Olympic medal in the bronze medal bout.
The wrestler from Haryana was posed with a tough challenge by Darian Cruz but managed to overcome it and dominated the match till final seconds of the match. With this, Aman Sehrawat secured his maiden Olympic medal of his career and also became the sixth Indian wrestler on the trot after Sushil Kumar (2008 and 2012), Yogeshwar Dutt (2012), Sakshi Malik (2016), Ravi Dahiya (2021) and Bajrang Punia (2021) to win a medal at the Olympics.
Additionally, Aman Sehrawat has become the youngest-ever Indian athlete to win an Olympic medal at the age 21 years and 24 days old. He bettered PV Sindhu's record of 21 years, 1 month and 14 days old when she clinched historic silver medal in badminton at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Aman Sehrawat kicked off his campaign with a win Vladimir Egorov of Macedoncia in the pre-quarters and qualified for the quarterfinal, where he defeated Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania to book his berth for the semifinal.
In the semifinal, Sehrawat was completely dominated by the defending Olympic medal and eventual gold medalist Rei Huigichi of Japan. Huigichi winded up the bout under three minutes.
Despite the semifinal defeat, Aman Sehrawat remained undeterred and put on brilliant show to clinch the bronze medal for India.
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Who is Aman Sehrawat?
Aman Sehrawat hails from Birohar village of Jhajjar district in Haryana. By the age of 11, Sehrawat lost both his parents due to medical reasons and he and his sister were brought up by their grandfather, uncle and maternal aunt.
Aman has been very fond of wrestling at a very young age as he comes from a state that has a rich tradition of producing the finest wrestlers who went on to bring laurels for India. At a young age, Aman Sehrawat tried his hands at mud wrestling after watching his sister, who was involved in the sport.
Aman Sehrawat became serious about wrestling when he watched his native Sushil Kumar clinched the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and made his way into Chhatrasal Stadium in New Delhi, which had produced Olympic medalists Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Bajrang Punia, and Ravi Dahiya.
From Chhatrasal stadium, Aman Sehrawat's journey began and quickly rose through the ranks just like other wrestlers.
Aman Sehrawat's achievements
Aman Sehrawat's big career breakthrough came in 2021 when he clinched his first national title in wrestling.
In 2022, Aman Sehrawat received his first international breakthrough when he clinched a bronze medal at the U20 Asian Wrestling Championships, which was followed up with a gold medal at the U23 World Wrestling Championships.
In 2023, Aman continued to shine at international level, winning a gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships. That year, he clinched a bronze medal at the Asian Games.
In 2024, Aman Sehrawat realized his dream of representing India at the Olympics when he earned the Paris Games berth at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament in Instanbul. The Wrestling Federation of India picked Aman over Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Ravi Dahiya to participate in the qualification round.
