Rahul Rohilla’s journey from sleepless nights to Olympic dreams

There was a time, almost five years ago, when Rahul Rohilla would spend sleepless nights thinking about his ‘broken dream’ of competing at an Olympics. The family’s financial struggles had forced him out of sport.

But Rohilla, who returned to racewalking in 2017, now stands on the brink of his maiden Olympics. He secured a berth for Tokyo 2020 by clocking 1:20:26 at the Indian Racewalking Championships in February 2021. The Olympic qualifying mark was set at 1 hour 20 minutes.

He had started racewalking in 2013, at the age of 17, with his cousins, who also competed in junior national events. Rohilla harboured dreams of going to the Olympics from a very early age but the family struggled financially.

Born in Bahadurgad, Haryana, he is the eldest of three children. His father is an electrician, who used to repair fans, while mother was a homemaker. Even though the family just about managed to make ends meet even then, they suffered a blow as both his parents fell sick. Their medical expenses per month would be about Rs 12,000 and they struggled to find the money for that as well as Rohilla’s diet and shoes.

“I left the game in the middle, but could not sleep through the night,” the 25-year-old was quoted as saying by Indian daily Jagran in June 2021. “I used to think about my broken dream. It went on like this for a few months. Seeing me upset, mother said I am fine, you go to play. The father also halved the cost of his medicines.”

He returned to the sport in 2016. In the absence of a proper coach, his cousins helped him polish his technique and kept him motivated. A year later was given a new lease of life as he joined the Army through the sports quota. He was recruited to the post of constable in Jabalpur. That set his athletic career back on track. Even though he started with 10km racewalk, he switched to 20km, which is in Olympic event, in 2017.

Rohilla missed out on the Olympic qualifying mark by less than a minute in 2019. But when the Indian athletics season resumed with the Indian Racewalking Championships in Ranchi in February 2021, he made the cut in the very first event.

He won a silver at the national event, while another Tokyo-bound athlete Sandeep Kumar took the gold with a national record time of 1:20:16.

When will Rahul Rohilla be seen in action?

Rahul Rohilla will compete in 20km racewalk on Thursday, August 5.