Ravi Dahiya's Asian Games Dream Comes Crashing As He Shockingly Loses Wrestling Trials

This loss is a big setback for Ravi Dahiya, who has been healing his knee injury. Maharashtra's Atish Todkar ended his dream to play in Asian Games, beating him 20-8.

File image of Ravi Dahiya. (Source: ANI)

Ravi Kumar Dahiya, silver-medalist of Tokyo Olympics 2020, won't be travelling for the Asian Games 2023 as he was knocked out of the wrestling trials by Maharashtra's Atish Todkar by 20-8 at the Indira Gandhi Arena on Sunday. Olympic and World medalist, Ravi Dahiya crashed out in the first round of wrestling selection trials for the acclaimed tournament. Dahiya started wrestling in his early teens and won the silver medal in the 2015 Junior World Wrestling Championships at Salvador de Bahia in the 55 kg freestyle category.

He picked up an injury in 2017 which kept him out of action for more than a year. In his comeback year, he won the silver medal at the 2018 World U23 Wrestling Championship in Bucharest, India's only medal at the competition, in the 57 kg category. Dahiya remained unbeaten at the 2019 Pro Wrestling League, representing the title-winning team, Haryana Hammers. He was ranked fifth at the 2019 Asian Wrestling Championships in Xi'an, after losing the bronze medal match.

In his World Championships debut in 2019, Dahiya defeated the European champion Arsen Harutyunyan in the round of 16, and the 2017 world champion Yuki Takahashi in the quarterfinal, to earn one of the six available quota places for the 2020 Summer Olympics. He lost to defending champion and eventual gold medalist Zaur Uguev in the semifinal round.

He managed to take the bronze after defeating Reza Atri of Iran. On the back of his medal win, Dahiya was included in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports' Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) in October 2019. He is also a bronze medallist in the 2019 World Wrestling Championships and a three-time Asian champion.
Dahiya won gold at the 2020 Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi and the 2021 Asian Wrestling Championships in Almaty.

In the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, he won the gold medal in the men's 57kg freestyle wrestling category in Birmingham, England.

At the 2022 Yasar Dogu Tournament, he won the gold medal after defeating Uzbek Gulomjon Abdullaev 11–10 in the final. At the 2022 World Wrestling Championships, he lost to Uzbekistan's Gulomjon Abdullaev in the pre-quarterfinals.