He will always fight until the end - Ravi Dahiya's silver success at the Olympics is a result of years of hard work

India’s 23-year-old freestyle wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya is a relentless fighter. The silver medalist in wrestling at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics has made an entire nation proud today. Sujit Mann, a former international and national wrestling coach, has talked about the resolute grit of Ravi Dahiya.

In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, the coach said:

“Ravi works tirelessly to achieve his goals. He will fight until the last second of the contest. All these qualities make him a good wrestler.”

Sujit has been with the national men’s freestyle camp for more than a decade and has seen Ravi Dahiya train up close.

In the gold medal match of the men’s 57kg category at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Thursday, the Indian wrestler used every bit of energy to outplay Zaur Uguev of Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) but had to eventually settle for silver. The experienced Zaur won the match and claimed the gold medal.

Ravi's tenacity to stay in the match against a much more reputed opponent is a testament to his never-say-die attitude.

“Ravi has heaps of endurance. His ability to continue to pursue his goal enabled him to reach the gold medal bout in Tokyo. He works extra hard than others during the national preparatory camps to build up his stamina. It paid off at the Olympics,” added the national coach.

The Indian wrestler exhibited great courage to make a comeback in the semifinal bout against Nurislam Sanayev of Kazakhstan at the Olympics.

“Ravi doesn’t give up. He will always fight until the end,” said Sujit.

Perhaps this could have been one of the reasons why the Haryana’s international wrestler didn’t gave up his goal of joining the Railways via the sports quota. Despite having an impressive profile, including silver at the World Under-23 Wrestling Championships in 2018, his application was rejected twice.

His off-the-field determination reflects the one he has on the wrestling mat.

“I was confident of getting a job in the Railways through sports quota because I had won silver in the junior world championships in 2015 and silver at the world u-23 championship. So even when my application was turned down, I didn’t lose hope. I kept on trying and finally got a job in Railways in early 2019,” Ravi had said earlier of his will to win.

Ravi's endurance to fight till the end is a source of inspiration for every individual who wants to achieve something in life but is scared by the obstacles placed in front of them. He may have only won silver this time for India, but Ravi Dahiya is the true gold India has found in wrestling.