‘Kheer, halva and makkan’ – What Olympic medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya gorges on

Ravi Kumar Dahiya etched his name in the annals of Indian wrestling after he won a silver medal in men’s freestyle 57 kg category at Tokyo 2020.

The 23-year-old has already caught the imagination of fans in India with a heroic performance in the semi-final win over Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev. He was trailing by a margin of 9-3 but then quickly added four points to his tally before pinning the opponent down to win by ‘fall.’

Indian celebrities such as sporting legend Sachin Tendulkar to Virender Sehwag hailed his display as Dahiya has established himself as one of the best in business.

“He is a simple boy who just does his practice, eats and drinks and takes enough rest. He doesn’t get involved in anything trivial. He doesn’t drive a car or a motorbike. He's not fascinated by these things but just loves to practice daily as his target has always been to win a medal at the Olympics,” said Rajesh Dahiya, Ravi’s uncle, told Olympics.com.

“From the age of six or seven, he got into wrestling because it was our dream to win an Olympic medal. I played at the state and national level as a wrestler. Our main mission was that someone in the family should win an Olympic medal,” he mentioned.

An aspect which has been highlighted time and again about Ravi Kumar is that he doesn’t throw in the towel until the very end. He is known for his stamina and self-belief coupled with a determination to succeed.

“At one time, when he slipped, the opponent was leading by a big margin. However, we had belief that if the bout goes until the last second, he won’t give up as he doesn’t give up. At the World Championship, he was trailing by seven or eight points, he won the game then. As a kid too, he was like this. At World Junior in Brazil, he won a medal and in one of his bouts, he was trailing by seven and then won 14-7. The key to his success is his stamina. From our village (Nahri, Haryana), he is the third Olympian after Mahavir Singh at 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles, and Amit Dahiya at London 2012. We had full faith that he will win a medal this time,” said Rajesh, who works as an assistant commandant at Border Security Force (BSF), Rajasthan.

Ravi is an epitome of simplicity. Ask his uncle about his habits and he says that the wrestler only prefers to eat home-made food.

“Whenever he comes home, he just loves eating kheer (sweetened rice with nuts) and that’s it. He has white makkan (butter) daily and we have a cow at home and so milk is available in abundance. He loves halva (Indian desert) and desi (traditional) food as he is a strict vegetarian,” he mentioned.

“He has made the country proud. All of us are so proud of him. He will receive a hero’s welcome,” said his uncle.