Kudos to the kushti prince

He has good reason to feel on top of the world. At an age when most athletes are just starting their sojourn at the senior level, the 20-year-old is already an established name in world wrestling.

At 18, he was the youngest wrestler to compete at the 2012 London Olympics where he defeated current world champion Hassan Rahimi of Iran on his way to the quarter-finals. He then took silver at the World Championships in 2013 before winning gold in CWG Glasgow 2014.

But success did not come easily to the son of a milkman from Nahri village in Sonipat district of Haryana. Having taken to wrestling at the tender age of seven, poverty was a big problem during the initial years.

“There were no facilities for any other sport in my village other than wrestling. Most of the boys in my village were into wrestling. So I used to go along with my friends. We used to train in mud pits at the village akhada,” says Amit, who was at the India camp in Sonipat recently.

The young lad showed early promise. When he was in Class II, he defeated a seven-standard student in a wrestling ‘contest’ during lunch break. His teachers and parents encouraged him to hone his talent further.

“Initially, my family found it difficult to fulfill my dietary requirements. But after I started doing well, the village coach took me to the Chhatrasal akhada in Delhi. There I saw wrestling mats for the first time,” he recalled.

“At Chhatarsal, guruji (former Asian champion Satpal Singh) saw to it that his students got a proper diet.”

The stocky youngster was already one of the best in the junior circuit when Sushil Kumar who also trains at the Chhatarsal Stadium under Satpal returned with a bronze medal from the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

That feat, which took the collective confidence and self-belief of the entire Indian wrestling community to a whole new level, provided the crucial spark of motivation for Amit.

“When Sushil bhai returned to the Chhatarsal akhada after Beijing Olympics, he was given a grand welcome. Reporters crowded the whole place. It was a completely different atmosphere. The entire akhada was decked up and I was standing in a corner watching all the celebrations. At that time, I promised myself that I will also do something similar,” he adds.

The relentless pursuit of success has forced Amit to neglect his studies. He is enrolled as an undergraduate student in a college in Uttar Pradesh. But the first year student is yet to attend a single class and does not even remember the name of the college.

“I practice for six hours every day. I hardly get time for anything else. Wrestling has given me everything in life. I do not feel that by neglecting my studies, I have missed out on anything in life,” Amit explains, adding, “Ab toh padhe likhe log bhi humse milne ko taraste hain.”

But being the youngest and least experienced in almost every senior level tournament must be tough, right? The question draws a smile and a confident shrug. “I am never nervous before a bout. I just focus on what my coaches taught me during training and just try to implement that. I also analyse my previous bouts and try to learn from my mistakes,” he says.

The success at the Commonwealth Games has further boosted Amit’s morale and he wants to go one better than Sushil and win gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

But for now, he is focusing on the Asian Games. “I have won medals in every major tournament I have played in, except for the Asian Games and Olympics. I want to win gold at the Asiad and then at the 2016 Olympics,” he says. “The Asian Games will be tougher than the CWG. Countries like Iran, South Korea and Japan win medals at the Olympics. We have some of the top wrestling nations in Asia. So it will be tough,” he adds.

“But there is no lack of confidence in Indian wrestlers. All of us will go with the target of winning gold,” he concludes.