Aman Sehrawat won India’s sixth medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, taking bronze in the men’s 57kg freestyle wrestling event. Aman, who had won his first two rounds by technical superiority, lost his semifinal bout against Japan’s Rei Higuchi on Thursday and was forced to compete in the bronze medal match on Friday.
Aman earned India’s first wrestling medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics by defeating the repechage champion, Puerto Rico’s Darian Toi Cruz, by a score of 13-5. This is also India’s fifth bronze medal and sixth overall at Paris.
Aman began his campaign with an easy victory over North Macedonia’s Vladimir Egorov. Aman started offensively and led 6-0 after the first round. He added four more points in round two and won the fight by technical superiority in just 3 minutes and 59 seconds. In the quarterfinals, Aman faced Zelimkhan Abakarov, a former world champion from Albania. Aman’s start in the second bout was comparatively slow, despite leading 3-0 at the end of the first round. However, he cranked up the pace in round two, scoring 9 points in 56 seconds to win the fight 12-0. The young Indian grappler won his second consecutive technical superiority match.
Aman’s chances of winning a gold medal were dashed, though, when Japan’s Rei Higuchi gave him a taste of his own medicine, winning the fight by technical superiority with a score of 10-0 in just 2 minutes and 14 seconds. This forced Aman to face the winner of the rematch round in order to guarantee a podium finish, which he eventually achieved.
It’s interesting to note that Aman, who considers wrestler Ravi Dahiya to be his idol, overcame him in the Indian wrestling tryouts to earn a spot in the men’s 57kg competition in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Notably, Ravi placed second in the same weight class at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
