6 best Indian wrestlers of all time

Modified Oct 25, 2014 16:30 IST

Wrestling is one of the oldest sports in the world. In what was seen primarily as a way to stay fit, the sport has evolved tremendously over the years to find itself a place in the Olympic Games. Indian wrestlers have beaten some of the best wrestlers in the world and continue to do so at the highest level of the sport.

#6 Udey Chand

Udey Chand is the first individual world championship medal winner from independent India. He created history when he clinched bronze in lightweight (67 Kg) freestyle at the 1961 World Wrestling Championships in Yokohama.

He also won two silver medals at the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games in Freestyle and Greco-Roman style wrestling formats.

He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1961, the first person to get the award.

#5 Jatindra Charan Goho

Goho is one of the most well known wrestlers of India and the first Asian to win the World Light Heavyweight Championship in the United States in 1921.

He recorded victories over some of the biggest boxing names at the time. His wins came against Jimmy Esson, the ‘Scotch Giant’, then World Light Heavyweight Champion Ad Santel.

He developed his own technique which involved wrestling holds like dhonka, tibbi, gadhanet, dhak,tang, pat, dhobiya pat and kulla which later became a part and parcel of Indian wrestling.

#4 K D Jadhav

is the first Indian to win an Olympic medal in wrestling when he clinched bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. He was fleet footed which made him stand out from other wrestlers of the time.

Jadhav had missed out on a medal in the 1948 London Olympics where he finished in 6th place in the flyweight category.

The Indian government presented him the Arjuna award in 2001. He was in the eyes of many a forgotten hero.

#3 Yogeshwar Dutt

Yogeshwar Dutt hails from Haryana and has worked his way to be considered one of the best wrestlers in the world. He started wrestling when he was eight years old. He has won several medals at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships and the Commonwealth Games.

His best effort at the Asian Games came this year in Incheon where he clinched gold in the 65-Kg freestyle category. He had earlier won bronze in the 2006 Doha Asiad.

At the Olympics, he tasted his first success when he won bronze at the 2012 London games in the 60-Kg freestyle category.

Awards:

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award – 2012

Padma Shri – 2013

#2 Sushil Kumar

Sushil Kumar was inspired to take up wrestling by his cousin Sandeep. The family could support only one person and Sandeep was the one who backed out. Sushil started training with minimal funds and poor training facilities. However, his family helped him to prepare for national and international competitions.

He claimed the top spot in Commonwealth Champions on five occasions. He won gold twice at the 2010 & 2014 Commonwealth Games.

His best effort came at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he clinched bronze in the 66 Kg category. In the 2012 London Olympics, he went one better to win the silver medal thus becoming the first Indian to win back-to-back individual medals at the Olympics.

Awards:

Arjuna award – 2005

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna – 2009

Padma Shri – 2011

#1 The Great Gama

Great Gama or “Gama Pahalwan” is widely regarded as the greatest Pehlwani wrestler in the history of the sport. He was just 5’ 7” tall and used his strength to good effect to beat his opposition.

He challenged the 6’9” Indian wrestling champion Raheem Baksh Sultani Wala, who had a superb record. Gama was considered to have no chance before the match began. The pundits were shocked to see that the match ended in a draw after several hours of fight.

Gama then went to England with his brother and issued challenges to wrestlers of any weight class that he would beat them. Gama’s challenge was accepted by Stanislaus Zbyszko on 10 September 1910 and their first match was a draw as Zbyszko employed defensive tactics for the most part of the 2 hours, 35 minutes match.

A rematch was announced to take place the next week and Zbyszko failed to turn up. Gama was thus declared the winner. He was awarded the Indian version of the World Heavyweight Championship on 15 October 1910.

Gama was undefeated throughout his professional career which lasted 50 years.

Edited by Staff Editor