Narsingh Yadav

At the Games held at home in New Delhi, India, Narsingh Yadav was a last-minute replacement and competed in the men's freestyle 74 kg category.

He managed to surprise everyone and won the gold medal, beating Richard Brian Addinall of South Africa in the gold medal bout.[6]

In Melbourne, Australia, Narsingh finished second in the Commonwealth Championship winning the silver medal, losing in the final to Cleopas Ncube of Canada.[7]

At the Olympics in London, Narsingh Yadav lost his opening bout against Matt Gentry of Canada in the 74 kg freestyle event and was knocked out of the tournament.[8]

In the round of 16 in Incheon, South Korea, Narsingh lost 1:3 to Rashid Kurbanov of Uzbekistan. With the Uzbek grappler qualifying for the final, Narsingh was able to compete for a medal through the repechage where he first faced Ramazan Kambarov of Turkmenistan and beat him 4:1. In the bronze medal bout, he was successful in securing the bronze medal with a 3:1 win over Daisuke Shimada of Japan.[9][10]

In honour of his bronze medal, Narsingh, along with Seema Punia, was awarded a cash prize of Rs 50 lakh by the state government of Uttar Pradesh.[11]

At the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships, Yadav, who has been included in the 74 kg category in the absence of double-Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar, lost to Daisuke Shimada of Japan 9–12 in the qualification round, but qualified for the repechage round after the latter reached the final. In his repechage bout, he defeated Byungmin Kong of South Korea 15–4 to enter the bronze-medal play-off. He bagged 3–1 classification points to outplay Zhiger Zakirov of Kazakhstan and won the bronze medal.[12][13]

Competing at the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas, Yadav won 3:1 in the first round over Hanoch Rachamin of Israel. His next opponent was Soener Demirtas of Turkey whom he beat 3:1. In the third round, Narsingh was up against Livan Lopez Azcuy of Cuba and won 4:1. In the fourth round, he lost 3:1 to Unurbat Purevjav of Mongolia. This allowed him to contest for the bronze medal bout which he won a comfortable 5:0 over Zelimkhan Khadjiev of France.[14]

The bronze medal bout made news across India not just for his spectacular comeback but also because of one particular move – the 'Dhak' move used in dangals or local wrestling clubs across India. Yadav's assistant coach Jagmal Singh who had coached Yadav for ten years recounted, "It’s called Dhak. It’s a showboating wrestling move that people use on mud-courts during big village-based tournaments. It's a crowd pleaser. But very difficult to pull off accurately."[15]

Having won bronze at the World Championships qualified Yadav to the 2016 Rio Olympics but Sushil Kumar, who had missed the 2016 Summer Olympics qualification event due to injury, asked for a trial between himself and Narsingh and moved his request to the Delhi High Court. It was only after his appeal was rejected that it was confirmed that Narsingh was going to the 2016 Rio Olympics.[16][17] However, Yadav failed two anti-doping tests, conducted on 25 June and 5 July 2016, testing positive for metandienone, which he asserted was to "sabotage" his chances of competing at the Olympics, following which he was given a clean chit by NADA.[18] The World Anti-Doping Agency challenged the decision and the case was moved to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A day prior to Yadav's first bout at the Olympics, on 18 August 2016, he was handed a four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[19]

For the inaugural edition of the Pro Wrestling League, Narsingh was bought by the Bangalore franchise, owned by JSW Sport, during the auction conducted in New Delhi. The World Championship bronze medallist was the marquee player picked up by the Bangalore franchise for Rs 34.5 lakh.[20]

The Pro Wrestling League is scheduled to kick off from 10 December till 27 December.[21]