Sushil Kumar: Profile 2012 London Olympics

Hailing from a humble background, Sushil Kumar not only realised the dream his father once harboured but also put Boprala on wrestling map of the world at Beijing in 2008.

Zeenews Sports Bureau

Full Name: Sushil Kumar Born: 26 May, 1983 (29 years) Weight: 66kg Sports: Wrestling (Freestyle) Hailing from a humble background, Sushil Kumar not only realised the dream his father once harboured but also put Boprala on wrestling map of the world by winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and thus became the first Indian to win back-to-back medals at the Summer Games. The bronze medal he won in Beijing was India’s first medal in wrestling at the Olympics after a gap of 56 years. Sushil defeated Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan 3-1 to claim bronze. He continued with his exploits clinching a gold medal in 2010 World Wrestling Championship in Moscow. Sushil qualified for the Olympics by winning the gold medal in the 66-kg category at the World qualifying tournament in Taiyuan (China). He was in red-hot form at the 2012 Games. In his opening bout he had already indicated that by defeating the reigning Olympic champion Ramazan Sahin in his opening bout. However, he lost the final to Japan's Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu and had to be content with a silver medal.