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| Sushil Kumar |
On July 2009, he received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna - India's highest honour for sportspersons. On 3 October 2010, Sushil Kumar was the final baton bearer who handed the Queen's Baton to Prince Charles in the Queen's Baton Relay for the 2010 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.
SushilKumar belongs to a Jat family & comes from the village Baprola, near Najafgarh in South West Delhi. Kumar's father Diwan Singh was a DTC bus driver and mother Kamla Devi a housewife. He was inspired to take up wrestling by his cousin Sandeep and his father who was himself a pehlwan (wrestler). The most important fact is thathe is a vegetarian.
Kumar is presently employed to the Indian Railways as Assistant Commercial Manager.
Kumar started training at the Chhatrasal Stadium's akhada at the age of 14. Trained at the akhada by Indian pehlwansYashvir and Ramphal, and later by Arjuna awardee Satpal and then at the Railways camp by coach Gyan Singh, Sushil endured tough training conditions which included sharing a mattress with a fellow wrestler and sharing a dormitory with twenty others. At the age of 18, he became state champ.
His first success came at the World Cadet Games in 1998 where he won the gold medal in his weight category. He followed this up with gold in the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship in 2000.
Moving out of the junior competition, Sushil Kumar won the bronze medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships in 2003 and followed that up with a gold medal at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships. Sushil Kumar placed fourth in the World Championships in 2003, but this went largely unnoticed by the Indian media as he fared badly in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, in the 60 kg class placing 14th. He won gold medals at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in 2005 and 2007. He ranked seventh in the 2007 World Wrestling Championships and won a bronze medal in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He also qualified for 2012 Summer Olympics taking place at London and won a silver medal by defeating a wrestler from Kazakhstan.He also became the first Indian to win 2 Olympic medals.
Asked as to why he refused a liquor advertisement, he replied, "I didn’t want to be associated with a liquor brand in any form as it would send a wrong signal to the youth. The sporting tradition that I have been raised in values discipline way above money."
Upholding such high traditions and value system along with the attainment of name and fame in the international arena, Sushil Kumar deserves to be the youth icon of the week. J