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| Nationality | Indian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | May 26, 1983 [1] Baprola, Najafgarh Delhi |
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| Occupation | Sportsman (Wrestler) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 166 cm (5 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Sushil Kumar Solanki (Hindi: सुशील कुमार सोलंकी, 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 and a bronze medal in the Men's 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[2] Kumar defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan in the repechage round to win the bronze.[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 honor 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]
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Sushil Kumar comes from the village Baprola in Delhi. Kumar's father Diwan Singh Solanki was an MTNL 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. He too belongs to a Jat family as most of the Indian Boxers,Players and Wrestlers do.[7][8] He is a vegetarian.[9][10]
Kumar is presently employed by the Indian Railways as a Assistant Commercial Manager.[3]
Solanki 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.[11] at the age of 18 he become 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, 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. 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, but managed to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He followed this up with a Bronze in the Asian Wrestling Championships, before heading for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Sushil Kumar was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2006.
Out of the field of 21, 11 wrestlers including Kumar 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,[12] leaving his medal hopes hinging on the repechage. 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.[13] 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.[14]
Sushil Kumar created history when he became the first Indian and Jat 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 semi-final match against European champion Jabrail Hasanov of Azerbaijan 4-3 to make it to the final. 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.
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.[15] In the quarterfinals Sushil Kumar defeated Muhammad Salman of Pakistan 10-0 in 46 seconds.