Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat clinched a bronze medal for India at the Paris 2024 Olympics at Paris, on Friday, August 9.
He defeated Puerto Rico’s Darian Toi Cruz in the bronze medal match of the Men's wrestling freestyle 57kg event.
At 21 years of age, Sehrawat is the youngest male wrestler at the Paris Summer games. He had earlier lost his semi-final bout against top seeded Rei Higuchi from Japan, on Thursday.
In this article, The Sporting News looks at Aman Sehrawat's young career, his achievements, and more about his bronze medal victory at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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Who is Aman Sehrawat?
Born on July 16, 2003, in Birohar, Haryana, Aman Sehrawat is the youngest Indian to win an individual Olympic medal after securing a bronze medal in the Men's wrestling freestyle 57kg event in the Paris 2024 games.
Sehrawat was just 11 years old when he lost both his parents. He was later brought to the famed Chhatrasal stadium, as a part of a residential programme, where young kids were molded into great wrestlers.
The Chhatrasal has produced several Olympic wrestling medalists like Sushil Kumar, Bajrang Punia, Yogeshwar Dutt, and Ravi Dahiya.
According to Sehrawat, he was inspired by Sushil Kumar's silver medal at the 2012 London Olympic games.
According to his coach Lalit Kumar, the youngster did not have anything else to lean on other than wrestling after the demise of his parents.
"He didn’t choose wrestling," but "Wrestling chose him," his coach said.
After winning the bronze medal, an emotional Sehrawat dedicated it to his late parents, saying: "This medal is for them. They don’t even know that I became a wrestler, that there’s something called the Olympics."
MORE: Aman Sehrawat wins India's fifth bronze medal at Paris 2024
Aman Sehrawat - Early career
Sehrawat's first major bout was at the age of 15, when he won a bronze medal at the 2018 World Cadets Championship in Zagreb, Croatia, which was then followed by a gold medal at the 2019 Asian Cadet Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
In 2021, he won his first ever National Championships and the following year in 2022, he became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Under 23 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain. He also won a bronze medal in the 57 kg category at the Asian Games in 2022.
After winning gold medals at the Asian wrestling championships in 2023 and the Zagreb Open in 2024, he competed at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament in Istanbul, where he earned India a quota place for the 2024 Olympic games in Paris.
Aman Sehrawat wins a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic games
The youngster was selected to represent India in the Men's wrestling 57kg category at the 2024 Olympics ahead of Tokyo 2020's silver medalist Ravi Kumar Dahiya, by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
Despite being the youngest wrestler at the Paris games, he impressed everyone after qualifying for the semi-finals, where he lost to Japan's Rei Higuchi, who was the top seeded wrestler in the event.
He got another opportunity to secure a medal in the bronze medal match, which he won after beating Puerto Rico's Darian Toi Cruz, to become India's youngster medalist at the Summer Games.
This was India's seventh Olympic medal in wrestling, and the fifth consecutive Summer Games in which the country has secured at least one medal in the sport.
List of major achievements of young Indian wrestler Aman Sehrawat
Here is a list of medals won by Indian wrestler, Aman Sehrawat in major competitions of his career so far:
| Year | Competition | Medal |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Yasar Dogu Tournament (Istanbul, Turkey) | Bronze |
| 2022 | Bolat Turlykhanov Cup (Almaty, Kazakhstan) | Gold |
| 2023 | Grand Prix Zagreb Open (Croatia) | Bronze |
| 2023 | Asian Wrestling Championships (Almaty, Kazakhstan) | Gold |
| 2023 | Asian Games 2022 (Hangzhou, China) | Bronze |
| 2024 | Grand Prix Zagreb Open (Croatia) | Gold |
| 2024 | Paris Olympics | Bronze |
MORE: India at Paris 2024 Olympics: Medal winners and standings