Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav

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Men's Wrestling
Olympic medal record
Bronze	1952 Helsinki	Bantamweight

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav (15 January 1926 – 14 August 1984) or KD Jadhav was independent India's first individual Olympic medalist when he won the wrestling bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games. Since 1900 when Norman Pritchard won two silver medals in athletics, India had won gold medals only in field hockey, a team sport. For nearly half a century, his would remain the only individual medal for India at the Olympics until Leander Paes won a bronze in 1996.

Hailing from a wrestling background, KD Jadhav was an ardent fan of sports, mainly wrestling, kabaddi, running, swimming and others. His father, a wrestler himself taught Jadhav about the sport and despite being the youngest in the family managed to grasp the game and outclassed everyone. Gradually he began emerging as undisputed wrestler in the area and soon was competing in national events. In the London Olympics, he participated in the flyweight category finishing sixth. Four years later, in the Helsinki Olympics he emerged as a stronger competitor, this time moving up in weight to the bantamweight class. Eventually despite losing the semifinal bout, he regained his composure and defeated his opponent to finish third.

Despite this unique achievement he was largely forgotten in India where cricket dominates and sports often takes a backseat. After this glorious moment he slid into oblivion and despite serving in the state police was living in poverty until he died in 1984 in a road accident. To this day no other Indian wrestler has emulated his feat of standing on an olympic podium.