Amit Kumar: The wonderkid who could be the next Sushil Kumar

In the Nahri village in Haryana, wrestling is a religion. Everyone – from the grand dads to the kids – wrestles. So when you are growing up there, it is a given – that you will wrestle and that you will be pretty good at it. However, because everyone wrestles – standing out isn’t easy. You need to be pretty special to have people lining up to watch you. And at 11, Amit Kumar was managing to do just that. In fact, he was good enough to convince one of the top coaches in the country to take him under his wing and the rest, as they say, is a champions story. Recently, he became India’s youngest ever wrestler to win a medal at the Worlds, following in the footsteps of Sushil Kumar who won a gold in the 2010 World Championships. “I saw him when he was 11, at a dangal organised by people from his village to honour me. One of my students brought this kid in front of me and said, ji isko ek baar dekh lo (just see him fight once), and I tested him against four-five different kids that day,” said Satpal Singh, who also is Sushil Kumar’s coach. “The level of performance, his transition from defence into attack and his nikaal-daav convinced me to take him away and train him full-time. He was just too good.” And Kumar has repaid every bit of Satpal Singh’s faith in him – from the day when he saw him first to the silver in Budapest, prompts his (and Sushil Kumar’s) coach Satpal Singh to confidently say, that after Sushil Kumar, he is India’s best bet to win a medal at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Satpal Singh’s voice doesn’t even flinch when he makes this bold prediction, considering that Sushil is the only Indian (across all sports) to win medals in an individual competition at consecutive Olympics. He’s also won a gold at the World Wrestling Championships in Moscow and finished with yellow again at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 — all this, while successfully upgrading to 66 kg from 60 kg. [caption id=“attachment_1151357” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Amit Kumar in action. AFP[/caption] Amit was the first wrestler from India to qualify for the London Olympics after clinching a gold medal at the Asian Qualifying Tournament. He has also won gold in World Cadet, Asia Cadet and Asian Junior level. In a word, Amit Kumar is India’s wrestling wonderkid — showing plenty of promise and fulfilling most of it. He, along with PV Sindhu, Yuki Bhambri, Nikhat Zareen, Rupinder Pal Singh and a host of young cricketers coming through, make for India’s next-gen group of sports stars. It’s easy to think that being a wrestler is cool — pump weights all day, travel to places like Hungary and America regularly and eat lots of food. However, looking at the life of young Kumar tells you it’s the exact opposite. As India’s silver medal winner puts it — “Pani-puri bhi nai kha sakta.” “You’re fighting for the nation,” Kumar tells us from Haryana, before adding more seriously, “Discipline is very important.” But Kumar, who loves alu ke parothe, has found a loophole: “Sometimes I just say I’m going for a haircut and go eat something nice outside. But there’s a reason for this strict diet — I fight in a category (55 kg) where I can’t eat too much. In fact, I’ve never eaten till I’m full. The other wrestlers in the heavy category… well, woh khaate hai aur hum dekhte rehte hai (they eat and we keep watching).” Amit’s schedule is what most wrestlers follow: wake up at 4 am, practice from 4.30-8 am, have milk and dry fruits, have lunch at noon and go to sleep. Wake up at 4 pm, train till about 7 pm, dinner and then hit the sack at 10.30 pm. As if that wasn’t tough enough, they’re not allowed too many holidays — most of which are spent at home. “TV dekhna aur bahaar ka khaana-peena bhi allowed nahi (Watching TV and eating food from outside is not allowed).” But what about when they go abroad, you may ask. Kumar, whose favourite destination to go to is Colorado, USA (from the places he’s already been to), says that the wrestlers hardly get any time to see a city if they go abroad — these are trips with a packed training schedule. “I really like training in America. I’ve noticed coaches in other countries don’t share too much with us, but in America every coach tells us something and it’s great to get so many tactical insights,” says Kumar, whose working on his attacking moves — defence being his strongest point in the ring. But do you understand what they say? “Thodi thodi English bol lete hai hum bhi, aur thoda samajh lene ka.” Kumar and Bajrang became the newest entrants into India’s fabled wrestling history after their triumphs at the World C’ships. Kumar fell to Hassan Farman Rahimi of Iran 1-2 to win finish with silver — but made headlines when he said that a referee’s mistake led to him losing the bout and robbing him of gold. “The other wrestler was a senior. Probably the umpire thought ‘ye naya naya hai’ and wasn’t paying attention. He made a mistake,” maintains Kumar. But that is his only brush with controversy. Otherwise, he says that he’s never faced any politics or seen favouritism in the sport. “We have trials, unlike many other sports selections. There is video evidence. It is out there. No politics can ruin our chances of being picked. If you’re good, you’re good.” After coming through the ranks, it must be pretty hard to see wrestling being threatened out of the Olympics, and Amit tells us that it was a low-point for him and his fellow wrestlers. “Without wrestling at the Olympics, there was no target to achieve. Mann hi nai karta tha practice karne ko, but after the reincorporation, everything is fine. We’re all aiming for a medal at the Olympics,” he signs off.