With extraordinary grit and resilience, 21-year-old wrestler Aman Sehrawat clinched a bronze for India in the men’s Freestyle 57 kg weight category by defeating Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz by a score of 13-5.
His victory also kept India’s streak at the Olympics alive, of winning at least one medal in wrestling since 2008. But in order to win the medal, Aman had to overome a significant challenge as his weight had exceeded the permissible limit for his category by 4.5 kilograms.
What followed next was a consistent effort for 10 long hours, where he worked tirelessly with his Indian coaches to shed the extra kilos.
The two coaches attached to the six-member Indian wrestling contingent, Jagmander Singh and Virender Dahiya, could not afford another blow after what happened with Vinesh Phogat and they began their mission to help Aman reach the required weight.
The tricky ‘mission’ began with a one-and-a-half-hour mat session where Aman was engaged in standing wrestling by his coaches and it was followed by a one-hour hot-bath session. Around 12:30 am, Aman moved to the gym for a non-stop one hour run on the treadmill. This part was crucial as sweating would help him reduce weight.
After a 20 minute break, Aman went through five sessions of five minute sauna bath. But even after the end of this session, Aman was still weighing 900g more. Then he was given a massage and was asked to do light jogging.
Around 4:30 a.m., the scale finally tipped in their favor as Aman weighed 56.9 kilos; 100 gms less than the permissable weight.
In between all these sessions, Aman was only given lukewarm water with lemon and honey and a bit of coffee to drink.
It was a long and tiring night for Aman, as he stayed awake, watching videos of wrestling bouts. “We kept checking his weight every hour. We didn’t sleep the whole night, not even during the day,” said coach Dahiya, highlighting the pressure they were in after what happened to Vinesh Phogat.
