The 21-year-old Aman Sehrawat became the youngest Indian to win an Olympic medal after securing a bronze medal at the Men's freestyle wrestling 57kg category, on Friday, August 9.
He defeated Puerto Rico's Darian Toi Cruz in the bronze medal match, after losing his semi-final bout against Japan's number one seeded, Rei Higuchi.
MORE: Paris Olympics 2024 gold medalist Japan's Rei Higuchi extends support to Vinesh Phogat
Sehrawat who had fought three bouts on Thursday, had to both replenish himself with nutrition and at the same time manage his weight on the morning of his bronze medal match, the next day.
The young wrestler is a product of the Chhatrasal Akhara in New Delhi, from which several other Olympic medalists like Sushil Kumar, Bajrang Punia, Yogeshwar Dutt and Ravi Dahiya have emerged.
He explains how he shed a weight of 4.6 kilograms in ten hours, to meet the requirements for the weigh-in and qualify for the bronze medal match, avoiding the same fate as Vinesh Phogat, who was disqualified from the competition despite qualifying for the gold medal match as she over weight by 100 grams.
BET NOW: Exclusive sign-up offers and bonuses when you bet on sporting action
How did wrestler Aman Sehrawat lose 4.6 kg ahead of weigh-in for his bronze medal match at Paris Olympics?
As soon as his semi-final match was complete, Sehrawat was aware that he had to prepare for the bronze medal match that was scheduled to be played the very next day, as he had qualified for it via the repechage round.
However, to qualify for the bronze medal match, he also had to complete the weigh-in next morning, on the day of his bout, but he was almost 5kg over the weight.
Earlier in the tournament, Iran's Alireza Sarlak, a former world’s silver medalist, failed to make weight and was disqualified from the competition.
To shed weight, he followed recommendations from his coach and support staff. In addition to the struggle, he also had to make another sacrifice of not consuming a lot of water or food. Here are some of the things he had to do to cut down his weight:
One-and-a-half-hour mat session of shadow-practicing wrestling.
One-hour hot-bath session.
One hour treadmill session at the gym.
5 Five-minute sauna bath sessions, for every 30 minutes, to lose weight via sweating.
Light massage and jogging
Five 15-minute training sessions
Lukewarm water with lemon and honey, and some coffee later.
He was allowed to rest when his weight had successfully come down to 56.9 Kg, 100 grams below the permissible limit.
After his bronze medal victory, Sehrawat told Sportstar, that: "Making weight is much harder than wrestling itself".
"It was hard but not anything more than what he can do. This is what we do," his coach Virender Dahiya had said later, talking about the tense weight-cutting process.
"We kept checking his weight every hour. We didn’t sleep the whole night, not even during the day. Weight cutting is routine, normal for us but there was tension, a lot of tension due to what happened the other day [with Vinesh Phogat]. We could not let slip another medal," he added.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Learn more >