Paris Olympics 2024: From 61.5 Kg To 56.9 Kg – How Aman Sehrawat Lost 4.6 Kgs In 10 Hours For Historic Bronze

Paris: Following his wrestling semifinal loss on Thursday at the Paris Olympics 2024, India’s Aman Sehrawat weighed 61.5kg, exactly 4.5kgs more than the permissible limit in the men’s 57kg. Knowing what happened to fellow wrestler Vinesh Phogat a couple of days ago, neither Aman nor his coaches Jagmander Singh and Virender Dahiya, wanted to take any risks as the trio worked tirelessly to lose 4.6kgs in the next 10 hours.
Aman’s loss against Japanese Rei Higuchi finished at around 6:30 PM IST. On a ‘mission’, Jagmander and Virender engaged Aman in a one-and-a-half-hour mat session where the 21-year-old practiced standing wrestling, following it up with a one-hour hot-bath session.
After a brief rest, Aman at 12:30 AM hit the gym and ran non-stop on the treadmill for one hour. The more you sweat the more it helps in cutting weight. He was then given a 30-minute break and five sessions of a five-minute sauna bath.
By the end of the last session, Aman was still weighing 900g more. He was given a massage and then the coaches asked the Chhatarsal trainee to do light jogging. Five 15-minute running sessions followed it. By 4:30 AM IST, Aman was weighing 56.9kg — 100g less. The coaches and the wrestler heaved a sigh of relief.
In between these sessions, Aman was given lukewarm water with lemon and honey and a bit of coffee to drink. Aman would not sleep after that. “I watched videos of wrestling bouts, the whole night,” said the fan of Taraf Mehta ka Oolta Chashma, a popular TV comedy soap.
“We kept checking his weight every hour. We didn’t sleep the whole night, not even during the day,” said coach Dahiya. “Weight cutting is routine, normal for us but there was tension, a lot of tension due to what happened the other day (with Vinesh). We could not let slip another medal,” said Dahiya.
All the hard work came to a fruition when Aman won the bronze medal, beating Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz on Friday to become India’s youngest ever Olympic medallist. Luck was on Aman’s side too at Paris Olympics 2204.
Iranian World Championships silver medallist Alireza Sarlak was expected to fight for a medal. However, the 27-year-old was eliminated on the opening after Sarlak reached the weighing station too late. Even if he lost to Higuchi, Sarlak would most likely have been in the Olympic bronze medal match against Aman.
Russian-Albanian Zelimkhan Abakarov, who had beaten Aman 10-0 in their last match, wasn’t also in his elements at the Paris Olympics 2024 following a terrible late cut and had a narrow 7-6 win over Diamantino Iuna Fafe from Guinea Bissau before losing to 0-10 to Aman.