Who is Aman Sehrawat, the Indian wrestler who will fight for bronze at Paris Olympics?

There was some good news for the Indian wrestling team in the Paris Olympics after the heartbreak of Vinesh Phogat's disqualification from the women’s 50kg event on Wednesday and her shock retirement announcement the following morning.

Aman Sehrawat, the lone Indian male wrestler in Paris, got his maiden Olympic campaign off to a rollicking start by winning his first two bouts in the men's 57kg category on Thursday.

Aman inflicted a thumping 10-0 loss on Macedonia’s Vladimir Egorov in his pre-quarterfinal bout before handing Albania’s Zelimkhan Abakarov an even more dominant 12-0 defeat, advancing to the semi-finals.

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He thus found himself on the verge of confirming India’s first wrestling medal at the Paris Olympics — which would been the second had Vinesh not failed her second weigh-in on Wednesday by a mere 100 grams after storming into the women’s 50kg final and confirming at least a silver.

A defeat at the hands of Rio Olympics silver medallist Rei Higuchi however has put his dreams of standing on Olympic podium on hold for now.

Aman proved no match for the Japanese wrestler as he suffered a 0-10 drubbing — resulting in a VSU or a victory by technical superiority where the loser fails to score a single point. The bout was over in a little over two minutes.

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It’s not over for Aman though as he will fight for bronze against Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz and can still get to add to India’s medal collection in Paris.

Before his bronze medal match gets underway, we take a detailed look at Aman’s journey so far:

Who is Aman Sehrawat?

Aman is the latest world-class wrestler to emerge from Delhi’s famous Chhatrasal Stadium, the akhada that has produced countless wrestling stars including Olympic medallists Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia.

Aman was born in the village of Birohar in Haryana’s Jhajjar district on 16 July 2003. His life began on a tragic note as he lost both of his parents when he was 11, and it was his grandfather who played a major role in helping the young lad recover from the devastating losses.

Aman, who has a younger sister as well, was later admitted to the Chhatrasal Stadium after expressing interest in mud wrestling at an early age, and has called the iconic akhada his home ever since. He would name Sushil, who won bronze in Beijing 2008 and silver in London 2012, as his childhood hero and the reason why he got into wrestling in the first place.

Aman made his first big impression by winning gold in the 2019 Asian Cadet Championships in Nur-Sultan. Two years later, he would win the National Championships for the first time while training under Lalit Kumar. And in 2022, Aman would become the first Indian to win gold at the U-23 World Championships.

He had a solid run in 2023 as well — winning gold in the Asian Championships in Astana as well as bronze in the Hangzhou Asian Games. More recently, he became the only Indian male wrestler to win Paris 2024 quota during the World Olympic Qualifiers, and was eventually preferred over Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Ravi Dahiya for the men’s 57kg event.