Ravi Kumar Dahiya

The medal was certainly the biggest of the youngster’s career. But according to the people in his village of Nahri in Haryana, Ravi Kumar Dahiya had only realised his destiny.

Born on 12 December, 1997, Ravi Kumar Dahiya was introduced to wrestling at a very young age. His father Rakesh and both uncles were wrestlers and the sport was a way of life in his village.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya competed regularly in his village before heading to New Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium at the age of 12.

The Chhatrasal Stadium is considered India’s best wrestling school, where two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt had trained, among several others.

Ravi Kumar Dahiya, a shy but gritty kid, trained hard under two-time Commonwealth champion Arun Dahiya but was unable to win a lot of titles early in his career.

It was discovered that Ravi Kumar Dahiya was anaemic (iron deficiency) and after that was treated, the youngster soon started fulfilling his talent.

Competing in the 57kg category, Ravi Kumar Dahiya won the junior national title in 2015 and a few months later, won silver in the world junior championship.

A knee injury, and subsequent surgery, in 2017 kept him out of action for a year but Ravi Kumar Dahiya soon bounced back with a silver at the 2018 World U23 Championships.

On his debut world championships in 2019, Ravi Kumar Dahiya beat former champion Yuki Takahashi en route to a bronze medal and earned a quota place for the Tokyo Olympics.

In 2020, Ravi Kumar Dahiya won gold at the Asian championships and later defended his title in 2021 and 2022, which made him the first-ever Indian to become a three time Asian wrestling champion.

At the Commonwealth Games in 2022, exactly one year and a day after his silver medal triumph at the Tokyo Olympics, Ravi Kumar Dahiya won the gold medal in Birmingham on August 7.

Ravi Dahiya defeated Nigeria’s Ebikewenimo Welson, a three-time Commonwealth Games medallist, in the final to clinch his maiden CWG medal.

Unfortunately, though, bouts with injuries meant Ravi Dahiya failed to make it to Paris 2024.