Sushil Kumar is a giant name in Indian sports. The wrestler is the only Indian player to win two individual medals at the Olympics.

Product of the Indian akhada

In Najafgarh where Sushil grew up, he first learnt the trade in traditional wrestling grounds or akhadas. The wrestler who now shines on the mat, learnt his fundamental lessons on the mud floor of the akhadas.

In the blood

Kushti runs in Sushil's blood. His father and forefathers had been wrestlers or pehelwans themselves. It was his cousin Sandeep, a local wrestling champion, who sowed the seed of wrestling in Sushil's mind. Sushil took up wrestling as a career, but his family’s meagre resources meant that only one of them could chase the dream, and Sushil was the chosen one.

Gold on the world stage at just 15 

Hailing from Delhi's Najafgarh, Sushil Kumar's first big breakthrough at the world stage came at just 15 when he won gold in the World Cadet Games.

A vegetarian

It is hard to imagine a world champion wrestler being a vegetarian, but Sushil follows a strict vegetarian diet. In fact, behind his medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics were tinned milk and ghee cans and vegetables sent by his mother.

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee

Sushil was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2010 after he became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World Wrestling Championship in 2010. The Indian freestyle wrestler achieved the feat in the 66 kg weight division.

Two Olympic medals

Sushil fell just one step short of the ultimate glory in sport - an Olympic gold. Sushil won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics on the back of a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This made him the only Indian to win two individual Olympic medals, and the only Indian to win two Olympic medals post independence.

Bronze in Beijing

The Indian wrestler beat Kazakhstan's Leonid Spiridonov 3:1 in the 66 kg freestyle event in 2008 to become the second Indian after Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav to win an Olympic medal in wrestling.

Silver in London

In the 2012 London Olympics, Sushil changed the colour of his medal and bagged a silver. Sushil got the better of Akzhurekh Tanatarov of Kazakhstan in a tough match to enter the final.

After contracting a stomach bug, Sushil could not put his best step forward in the final as Japanese military man Tatuhiro Yonemitsu denied him the Olympic gold.