Sujeet Kalkal's Slow And Steady Rise To Asian Games Gold: Churma, Haryanvi Songs And A Father's Olympic Dream

Anybody who watched Sujeet Kalkal throw Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyooka around the mat as if he were a sparring partner in the Asian Games 2026 semi-final, then pull the final back from 2-9 down against Tajikistan's Abdulmazhid Kudiev to become Asian Games champion, would assume he has been defeating people all his life. A wrestler's son. Raised in the mud of an Imlota akhada. Coached to this day by his father, Dayanand Kalkal, alongside Kuldeep Singh.

At the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center, eight unanswered points in the second round turned that deficit into the 65kg gold.

It is the kind of story people like to tell, the natural who never lost, and the comeback only adds to it. Dayanand laughs when he hears it.

"Sabne lagge hai yu bachpan se hi itna badhiya tha wrestling mein. Esa kuch na hota. Mehenat laage hai, ar ispe mehenat aave hai (Everyone thinks he was this good at wrestling from childhood. It was never like that. Greatness demands labour, and this boy knows how to labour)," Dayanand Kalkal told Outlook India before the bout.

Sujeet, 23, is a late bloomer, a slow burner who has taken the longer route to the top. He was never the obvious prodigy, nor did the biggest stages arrive early in his career. His first senior continental title came only this year, and the Asian Games in Nagoya was his first major multi-sport Games.

But the rise has been gradual and hard-earned. A World U23 title came first, followed by an Asian Championships crown and now Asian Games gold -- milestones that have taken a once-unheralded wrestler from Imlota to the top tier of Indian wrestling at 65kg.

The Making Of Sujeet Kalkal

Sujeet was born on November 5, 2002, in Imlota, in Haryana's Bhiwani district. The akhada he trained in was his father's own, modest and without a name, and experienced coaching was hard to find.

He trained there until 2020, then moved to Sonipat in 2021 to work with wrestlers who had years of international mats behind them.

Titles came early. He won the U23 Asian Championships in Bishkek in 2022 and the U20 Asian title weeks later, then took a senior Ranking Series gold in Tunis that July. The senior circuit was a different fight.

The 65kg class belonged to Bajrang Punia then. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games trials, Bajrang beat him 4-0 in the semi-final.

The hardest blow came two years later. In April 2024, floods in the UAE stranded Sujeet and Deepak Punia in Dubai on their way to the Asian Olympic Qualifier. They reached Bishkek after weigh-ins had begun and were not allowed to compete.

A month later in Istanbul, Zain Retherford of the USA beat him 2-2 on criteria in the bronze bout. His Paris 2024 chance was over.

A prodigy might have taken that as a sign. Sujeet went back to training.

In 2025, he beat Olympic bronze medallist Islam Dudaev 11-0 on his way to Ranking Series gold in Budapest, then won the U23 World Championships in Serbia. At the senior World Championships in Zagreb, he lost 6-5 in the quarter-final to Rahman Amouzad, who went on to become world champion.

This year, the work showed. He won the Zagreb Open, the Tirana Ranking Series and the Asian Championships in Bishkek. He became the first Indian to win that continental title at 65kg since Bajrang in 2019 and rose to world No. 1 in April, ahead of Amouzad and Kiyooka.

Dayanand's Dream

The labour started long before any of those titles, and it started with a dream that was not Sujeet's. Dayanand was a national champion who competed internationally, and he wanted more than he got.

"I was a national champion in 2004. Then I had to leave wrestling for a few years. This was my dream from the beginning. Because I couldn't do it, I thought of getting my son to do it," Dayanand said.

Sujeet heard the plan as a five-year-old and has never argued with it.

"I started wrestling when I was five or six years old because of my father, who was also a wrestler. His dream was to become a good wrestler and win gold at the Olympics. I started in the mud pit of my village. Yes, whatever Papa says. Parents know everything. They must have seen something in me," Sujeet said before the bout.

The training ground was not much, and the boy was not a natural either. Dayanand's akhada had no name, and few came back for long.

“I had a small akhada in our village. It didn't have a name. If one or two kids came, it was just me and him doing technique practice. No one else stayed for long. Even if a kid came, he would stay for only a few days. It was a long penance. The child had no interest at first, but I created an environment that made him interested. These things cannot be forced, and they should not be,” Dayanand said.

Sujeet's father would not allow wrestling to come at the expense of education.

"Studying from first to twelfth is important whether you are a wrestler or a normal person. My father made me think that studying is as important as playing," Sujeet said.

Until Class 12, Dayanand says, it was studies and technique. Then the work got serious.

"I taught him technique till the twelfth. After that I started making him do it, and as soon as I did, the results came. We said from the start that our target is not small. Our target is the Olympics," Dayanand said.

Doubt did visit Sujeet as a child, but his father never shared it.

"When I was a kid, I used to think it would be difficult to make a career in wrestling. But my father trusted me more than I trusted myself. Today I feel my father was right," Sujeet said.

What Sets Sujeet Kalkal Apart

That trust came with a method. Ask Sujeet what Indian wrestlers do best and he says stamina and hard work. Ask where his own wrestling comes from and the answer is technique. The two are not the same, and that distinction has shaped his wrestling.

"First of all, my father trained me technically. In my childhood, I did less hard work. A normal player who starts with hard work loses his childhood and becomes old. In terms of power and endurance he will be good, but my father trained me technically," he said.

Told that his wrestling resembles the Russian style, he agreed. He does not think the gap with the best is in the effort. He thinks it is in the exposure.

"Russian wrestlers are technically superior to us. In India, we have more stamina and hard work than other wrestlers. Our old methods of coaching are not wrong, but if we learn technically outside, we will be 100 percent competitive at the Olympics. That's the only difference," he said.

His father sees a second strength.

"He is technically strong. His biggest strength is that he is mentally strong. The one who has the mind and strength will be successful," Dayanand said.

The Iconic 65kg Weight Class

He carries that method in a class with a long history. Yogeshwar Dutt won Asian Games gold at 65kg in 2014, Bajrang Punia won it four years later, and Bajrang's loss at the 2022 Asian Games ended India's domination of the division.

Sujeet was not part of those Games. Ahead of it, he and Antim Panghal went to court against the direct entries given to Bajrang and to Vinesh Phogat, who was placed in the 53kg category without trials. Antim eventually made the team and won bronze, while Vinesh decided not to compete. Sujeet got no relief from the court.

He does not hide from that history. He wears it lightly, and he keeps his mind calm.

"It is a matter of pride for me to represent my country in this weight category. I don't take any pressure. I am motivated to win gold for my country. I keep my mind calm. For example, I keep eye contact with the audience, and this helps me improve my performance," he said.

What The Asian Games Gold Means

Sujeet had won at the U23 level, on the Ranking Series and at the Asian Championships. The Asian Games was a different stage, and his first time on it. The gold is India's first at 65kg at the Games since Bajrang's gold in 2018.

Before the bout, Dayanand said it was close to an Olympics. His hopes were firm, and he was already looking beyond it.

"See, the Asian Games is like the mini Olympics. Iran, Japan, and other wrestling-dominating countries, whatever it is, it is the same as the Olympics. I have a lot of expectations from Sujeet. He is new. He has improved, and he will improve even more. I hope he will win gold. The graph is going up. By 2028, it will reach its peak. As his age increases, his strength will also increase," he said.

Sujeet saw it as one road. The World Championships follow soon after, and he prepared for both the same way.

"We have the same mindset and training for both. Our coaches are very good. With their help we got a chance to compete in Armenia, and we feel we are preparing well," he said.

Churma, Weight And Advice

Away from the mat, life is quieter. Dayanand coaches at the Sports Authority of India centre in Sonipat, where Sujeet has trained for five years, and the two share more than a mat.

"He stays with me. We discuss everything. Training, diet, rest, everything. A sportsman has to go through a lot of penance," Dayanand said.

The penance shows in the food. Sujeet has not been home in two or three years, and a taste of it reaches him once a week.

"Churma is my favourite. My mother makes it. It has been two or three years since I've been home, so when my father goes home, he brings it for me every week. I have to manage the weight too. Once a week, there is no problem," Sujeet said.

Free time is short, and music fills it, though the song for his victory reel is still undecided.

"On my day off I prefer listening to music, and I read a few books. I don't have time for other hobbies. I like Haryanvi and Punjabi songs. I haven't thought about it yet. I will tell you when I think about it," he said.

Asked what he would tell a younger version of himself, he looked back to the same two people who had shaped him.

"Your coaches and your family should be closer to you, whether it is your mother or your father. Always listen to them, because their life experience is never wrong," he said.

India 2026 Asian Games Medal Tally

The Comeback From 2-9

The road to the gold went through Kiyooka, and Dayanand thinks the semi-final should have gone even more Sujeet's way.

"He applied a 4-point technical move against him there, but the referees awarded only 1 point to him, which was a big loss. It should have been 4 points for him. Still, he managed to pull off the match. He fought with a lot of intelligence," Dayanand told Outlook India after the bout.

Then came the final. Sujeet was 2-9 down. Before the bout, he had said he never steps on the mat thinking about losing. At 2-9, the line had to hold.

"I don't think I will lose. I think I have to win and give my best," he said.

His father says that, from the outside, hope was thin.

"I had hope, but it felt almost impossible. Still, there was a spark of hope in my heart, because the way he makes a comeback after the half-time break is something unique in every match," Dayanand said.

Kuldeep Singh was in the stands in Nagoya. By his own account, his blood pressure touched 180, and it felt as if he were on the mat with his wrestler.

"It feels good. My heart rate was touching 150-plus. I am very happy. I came here just for this, and seeing him win gold feels amazing," Kuldeep told Outlook India after the bout.

For years, Dayanand's dream was simple: give his son the chance to achieve what he could not. Sujeet has now given him an Asian Games gold, but there is little sense of an ending in the Kalkal household. The Olympic dream remains, and so does the work.

For now, though, the work can wait for a day. There is a gold medal to celebrate, a party to plan, and, as always, some churma to look forward to.

His mother makes it. His father brings it to him once a week. After years spent away from home, it is one of the small tastes of home that has stayed with him through the grind.

This time, perhaps, it will taste a little sweeter.