CWG wrestling: After anxious moments off the mat to ‘make weight’, Ravi Dahiya exhibits swagger on it to win gold

“I am my favourite. I am,” Ravi Dahiya would say in an Insta video recorded by United World Wrestling, on the morning of his Commonwealth Games remaining the place he introduced India’s 4th of 6 wrestling gold at Coventry.

It was unintentional swag, it was genuine although. “Arre, I couldn’t think of anyone. They asked, so I answered,” he would say later, whilst American Jordan Burroughs topped the tally. Not for India’s silver medallist from Tokyo, and essentially the most watchable grappler since Sushil Kumar.

On the mat, he picked eight factors from the snaking phitle, after which completed a technical superiority reaching 10 factors a couple of seconds later, all achieved with out a lot fuss.

It was within the morning although – when not beneath the highlight, the place he sauntered in and swagged out, and stood along with his hand on hips, ready for the world to settle into an applauding refrain – that Ravi had confronted his hardest check: making weight.

Indian National anthem quantity 10 in CWG 2022 ..

Keep it coming guys …

Thank you Ravi Kumar Dahiya I’m positive you’ll change the colour of your Olympic medal 🏅in Paris 2024 to yellow..

Goosebumps all the time 😍#Wrestling #RaviDahiya pic.twitter.com/5F2xAnbZgk

— Soug (@sbg1936) August 6, 2022

He had clearly not been consuming a lot the previous few days. To prime that, he spent three hours within the morning spilling sweat and getting cranky to return inside 100 gm of his required weight. “That is the worst part of these smaller categories. But you have to do it for the country. What to do?” he would say.

Ravi is understood to spend three hours at Chhatrasal, prepping for every six-minute struggle, the place sparring opponents who don’t accord him undue respect, are let free on him one after the opposite, as a progressively tiring fighter takes on the contemporary challengers. He runs at 4 am, and permits Holi, Diwali and different festivals to float previous yr after yr. “I’m still in wrestling. I don’t like thinking of anything else,” he says, seeing no have to unwind.

The cardio energy and stamina he’s recognized for are fully constructed on the mat. “No gym. If I have to fight on the mat, I should build strength on the mat,” he says.

His comparatively tall stature at 57 kg – teeming with smaller wrestlers – means his hand attain when he swoops them for leg holds is an incredible sight to observe. When Ravi’s arms flap out, the opponent is about to be baited and switch to a kill. It opens him up for the hulking, bending opponent going for his leg although. “Yes, I’m not known for my defense, really. I’m an attacking wrestler, I don’t believe in defense much.”
He’s grateful for the love and blessings of individuals. But such is the self-assurance of this man, he’ll win even in any other case.