Before he climbed the podium in Paris, Olympic bronze medallist Aman Sehrawat had to face trial(s) by fire at home.
On July 22 last year, the then-rookie appeared for his maiden Asian Games selection trials. Like every other wrestler competing there, Aman had only four days to prepare for it; the official notification of the trials was issued on July 18.
Then, a month later, the teenager had another test to navigate – for the World Championships. This time, he got just an 11-day notice. Like the first trial, he reigned supreme here too in the 57 kg class, one of the most competitive categories in India.
Twenty days later, exhausted after back-to-back competitions at home, Aman landed in Belgrade for the World Championships. And in the round of 16, he was steamrolled in 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
Aman wasn’t the only wrestler to endure the challenge of having to compete three times in approximately 50 days, go through three weight cuts, and manage the peaking cycle thrice.
“When you reduce the weight again and again, it affects your body since you can’t maintain or increase strength. Thus, it affects performance,” says Lalit Kumar, Aman’s coach. “At the trials, we are given a 2 kg exemption. So, he could compete with 59 kg domestically. But still, he had to reduce almost 2 to 3 kilos each time and around 4-5 kilos for the actual championship.”
Chaos reigns
For the last two years, as a fallout of the quagmire that’s gripped Indian wrestling, the country’s athletes – rookies and Olympians, juniors and seniors – have had to deal with unprecedented uncertainty, leading to mismanagement of Olympic proportions.
The extent of the impact it has had on the wrestlers has now been analysed by a researcher. Focussing primarily on the conduct of the selection trials for major continental and world events in 2023 and 2024, the researcher — requesting to remain anonymous — observed that leading up to the Paris Olympics, confusion and chaos reigned supreme primarily in selection.
The wrestlers, the study noted, got little time to prepare for the trials, thus severely impacting their preparedness for the main competitions, potentially causing health risks due to repeated weight cuts in a short period and even expecting them to peak more than once during that period.
Sample this:
The selection trial for the Hangzhou Asian Games was held on July 22 and 23. Its official directive came on July 18.
To pick the team for the 2023 World Championships, the trials were held on August 25 and 26. Wrestlers were informed about it just 11 days before, on August 14.
The trials for Asian Olympic Qualifiers were conducted on March 10 and 11, 2024. The notification came just two days before, on March 8.
The gap between the selection trials and the actual tournament averaged two-to-three weeks, forcing the athletes to cut weight twice in a short span, apart from other physical, psychological, and logistical challenges.
At least in the above cases — which happened under the watch of the Indian Olympic Association-mandated ad-hoc committee and the Wrestling Federation of India — the trials took place.
Former World Championship silver medallist Deepak Punia and under-20 and under-23 world medallist Sujeet Kalkal set up a base camp in Dagestan, Russia, to prepare for the final Olympic qualifier earlier this year. Out of the blue, the Sanjay Singh-led WFI said there was a possibility of holding a selection trial to pick the team for the event, forcing Punia to take the first flight back home. Upon landing in New Delhi, the wrestlers were told there would be no trials. Eventually, neither made the cut for Paris 2024.
Increasing uncertainty
The opaque ways to pick India’s teams for international wrestling competitions have been the case for as long as one can remember, even leading to repeated court cases.
But in the last two years, the uncertainty has only increased. Since January 2023, when India’s top wrestlers began their protest against former WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, there has been a constant tussle to assume control of the sport’s administration.
Dayanand Kalkal, the father and the coach of Sujeet, says: ”If we look at established wrestling nations like the USA or Japan, the wrestlers there know at the start of the year when the trials will take place. It gives clarity to the wrestlers, helps them prepare better and reduces overall stress.”
Indeed, in countries like Japan and the USA, who finished first and third in the wrestling medals tally at Paris 2024, the wrestlers are informed of the annual calendar — including the dates of the selection trials — at the start of the year. The trials for the Olympics were held in April in categories where quotas were already booked, giving the Paris-bound athletes nearly three months to recover and prepare.
In India, amidst a lack of clarity, the wrestlers had to plead with the WFI until weeks before the opening ceremony to not hold another selection trial — a request that the WFI eventually accepted.
Throughout the Paris Olympics cycle, however, the sudden holding of selection trials meant some wrestlers had to rush into tournaments on the back of injuries, complicating their rehab.
“In the case of the Asian Games trials last year, for example,” says Dharamveer Malik, the father of former Asian champion and World Championship silver medallist Anshu, “there was so much confusion over the dates of the trials that we couldn’t plan Anshu’s rehab properly. When they finally announced the dates, we were given only four days to prepare for the trials for such a big event.”
Recovering from a knee injury, Anshu lacked time to get fit for the trials and lost in the first round. It was the same case with Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya, who too had to rush into competition after nursing an injury for a prolonged period.
Anshu and Ravi were among the half-a-dozen elite wrestlers who spent as much time in rehab — if not more, like in Ravi’s case — as they did on the wrestling mat during the last Olympic cycle.
Anshu had recurring knee and neck injuries. Another young wrestler, Sonam Malik, reported injuries six times between April 2023 and March 2024. World Championship medallist Antim Panghal wounded her neck in June 2023 and thumb four months later. Ravi had two surgeries on his knee while Aman suffered a hamstring injury in April.
Under-23 world champion Reetika Hooda, Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Deepak Punia, too, suffered injuries at different points in the last two years.
“The situation hasn’t been ideal in the last two years,” says Dayanand, whose ward Sujeet recently returned from a training stint in Japan. “We hope that things will settle down in the coming weeks so that the preparation for the upcoming tournaments won’t be compromised.”
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