In the men’s 57kg wrestling division in the Champ de Arena on Friday, Aman Sehrawat defeated Darian Toi Cruz of Puerto Rico 13-5 to claim India’s first wrestling medal at the Paris Games. At the Olympics in Paris, the young wrestler won India’s fifth bronze medal.
Table of Contents
Aman Sehrawat, 21, became India’s seventh wrestler to win an Olympic medal after beating Darian Toi Cruz of Puerto Rico 13-5 in the men’s 57kg bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics .
On Friday, Aman Sehrawat made history by taking home the bronze in the men’s 57kg freestyle playoff. By doing this, he made history in Paris 2024 as the first wrestler to earn a medal for India.
In addition, he became the youngest wrestler to win an Olympic medal in Indian history. He joined a distinguished group that included KD Jadhav, Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Ravi Dahiya as the seventh wrestler from India to win an Olympic medal.
With this achievement, Sehrawat raised India’s medal total from five to six. Manu Bhaker had earlier won two bronze medals, one in the solo category and one in the mixed team shooting competition.
In the meantime, Neeraj Chopra took home silver in the men’s javelin throw and Swapnil Kusale also won a bronze in shooting.
Beginning of Aman Sehrawat
Sehrawat is 21 years old and was born on July 16, 2003. He was born in the Jhajjar district of Haryana, near Birohar.
He started out by mud wrestling. He entered the Chhatrasal Stadium in New Delhi at the age of ten, motivated by his silver medal win in the 2012 Olympics.
When he was just 11 years old, both of his parents passed away from various illnesses.
Ascent to fame
The grappler, who trained under Lalit Kumar, won his first National C’ship title in 2021 and reigned supreme. He became the first Indian to win gold at the U-23 Asian C’ships in 2022.
He then won gold at the 2023 Asian Wrestling Championships in April of 2023. At the 2022 Asian Games, he also took home a bronze medal. In the men’s 57kg competition at the Zagreb Open in January 2024, he won gold by easily defeating all of his rivals by technical.
2024 Summer Olympics in Paris
He won India’s quota spot for the Paris Olympics by competing in the 2024 World Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament in Istanbul.
Then, the WFI chose him over silver medallist Ravi Dahiya from Tokyo 2020. In addition, he is the only male wrestler from India to earn a spot in Paris 2024.
He defeated Zelimkhan Abakarov of Albania and Vladimir Egorov of Macedonia in the first round of his Paris 2024 campaign with to technical dominance, but he was defeated by top-seeded Rei Higuchi in the semifinals.
He defeated Darian Crus of Puerto Rico in the bronze medal playoff. Speaking following his bronze medal, Sehrawat thanked his parents for their support. “They deserve this medal,” Aman Sehrawat declared.
