Yogeshwar Dutt can give India the final hope for glory at Olympics
Yogeshwar Dutt made India proud with his bronze medal win in the 2012 Olympics. Photo: Reuters
Going into the Olympics, wrestling, shooting and boxing were India's supposed strengths. We had Abhinav Bindra, Jitu Rai, Deepika Kumari, Narsingh Yadav and Shiv Thapa doing extremely well in the last two years, with India hoping they would carry their good form to Rio.
That obviously didn't happen, with Jitu Rai, Deepika Kumari and Shiv Thapa especially disappointing. Bindra came very close to the medal but Yadav got a four-year ban, which was a pretty anti-climactic end to a year-long saga. World Anti-Doping Agency overturning National Anti-Doping Agency's decision throws a lot of shade on the Indian agency, but that's a story for another day.
With the Rio Olympics winding down and India's medal tally standing at two due to super efforts from Sakshi Malik and PV Sindhu, wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt is our last medal hope. He won a bronze in London but hasn't touched his 2012 form recently.
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| Yogeshwar Dutt with his bronze medal in London 2012. Photo: Reuters |
He has been handed a tough draw to start the event with, he is facing the 2014 world's gold and 2015 bronze winner. If he gets past him, a bout with the reigning silver medallist awaits.
Yogeshwar is the only Indian left competing in Rio. These are going to be his fourth and last Olympics. This is literally the end.
But Yogeshwar also overcame three surgeries in 2015 to book his place in Rio. If history's anything to go by, he has always been clutch, coming through when it matters.
He is emblematic of India as a nation and every Indian athlete at these games, overcoming enormous odds to just reach there.
"We have been friends since childhood. All my best wishes are with Yogeshwar. I hope he wins the gold medal. The entire nation is standing behind him," two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar told ANI.
Yogeshwar could win us a medal but whatever happens, him just being there has already given us a happy ending.