Wrestler Aman Sehrawat created history at the Paris Olympics by becoming the youngest Indian to win a medal in the Summer Games. After his victory, it has come to light that the youngster had to go through a rigorous weight-loss routine on the night before his medal match. There was tension in the India camp already after Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from her medal match for being 100g overweight.
Aman Sehrawat’s journey to lose 4.6 kgs in 10 hours
It took 10 hours, multiple sauna and hot bath sessions, massages and other drills for Aman Sehrawat to shed 4.6 kilos. The wrestler, who took part in the men’s 57 kg category, weighed 61.5kg after his semifinal loss against Japan’s Rei Higuchi around 6:30 pm on Thursday. This meant he had to shed a lot of kilos before the weigh-in on the next day that would determine his medal hopes.
As per Hindustan Times, coaches Virender Dahiya and Jagmander Singh burnt the midnight oil in their attempt to get Sehrawat’s weight within the permissible levels before the weigh in.
The routine started with a one-and-a-half hour long mat session with the two coaches. A one-hour hot bath session was given to the wrestler after his mat session. This was followed by a 30-minute non-stop treadmill session in the gym at midnight.
After a brief break of 30 minutes, Aman Sehrawat was given five sessions of 5-minute sauna bath. He lost 3.6 kilos by then and had to lose more weight in order to not be disqualified. He was then given a massage session followed by light jogging and a 15-minute running session. By 4:30 am, his weight had reduced to 56.9 kilos, 100 grams less than the permissible limit.
How a tensed India camp managed Aman Sehrawat
“I watched videos of wrestling bouts, the whole night. 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.”
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