WRESTLING

Considered as one of the most ancient and oldest sports in the world, wrestling in India has a glorious past. Wrestling has been a popular sport in India since ancient times. Wrestling is counted amongst the most prestigious and oldest events in the Olympic Games, as it was included in the Olympics in 708 BC. In the ancient times, wrestling in India was mainly used as a wonderful way to stay physically fit. It was also used as a great way of military exercise without any weapons. Wrestling in India is also known as `dangal`, and it is the basic form of a wrestling tournament. Wrestling in India is most famously known as Malla-Yuddha. There are also mentions of wrestling in the ancient times. These can be found in the great epic of Indian history. Mahabharata has a huge mention about the game of wrestling in India. One of the premier characters in Mahabharata, Bhima was considered to be a great wrestler of that time, and some of the other great wrestlers included Jarasandha, Duryodhan, Karna, etc. In the other Indian epic, Ramayana also mentions about wrestling in India and Hanuman is described as one of the greatest wrestlers of that time. The 13th century Malla Purana has the reference of a group of Gujarati Brahmin wrestlers known as Jyesthimallas.


Sushil Kumar

Sushil Kumar (born May 26, 1983) is an Indian World Champion wrestler who won the gold medal in the 66 kg freestyle competition at the FILA 2010 World Wrestling Championships, a silver medal in the Men's 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2012 London Olympics and a bronze medal in the Men's 66kg Freestyle Wrestling event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which made him the first Indian to win back to back individual Olympic medals.Sushil Kumar competed against Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan in the London Olympics finals. Kumar defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan in the repechage round to win the bronze in Beijing Olympics.

This was the second medal for India in wrestling, and the first since K D Jadhav's bronze medal at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.On July 2009, he received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna - India's highest honour for sportspersons. On 3 October 2010, Sushil Kumar was the final baton bearer who handed the Queen's Baton to Prince Charles in the Queen's Baton Relay for the 2010 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

Olympic Games
Silver	2012 London	66 kg
Bronze	2008 Beijing	66 kg
World Championships
Gold	2010 Moscow	66 kg
Commonwealth Championship
Gold	2003 London	60 kg
Gold	2005 Cape Town	66 kg
Gold	2007 London	66 kg
Gold	2009 Jalander	66 kg
Commonwealth Games
Gold	2010 Delhi	66 kg
Asian Championships
Gold	2010 New Delhi	66 kg
Silver	2007 Kyrgyzstan	66kg
Bronze	2003 New Delhi	60 kg
Bronze	2008 Jeju Island	66 kg