Despite becoming the first - and only - male Indian wrestler to qualify for the Paris Olympics, Aman Sehrawat is not an entirely happy man. Reason? Having to cut weight for a fresh round of trials. (More Sports News)
"So many times I have cut my weight. How many times I have to do it? It causes a lot of weakness. I don't understand do I think of now winning trials again or start preparing for Olympics. I think the work I need to put for a good preparation will be affected if I am asked to go through the trials again," Aman told PTI in an interview.
The 20-year-old grappler sealed a berth in men's freestyle 57kg for Paris 2024 at the recently-concluded World Qualifiers in Istanbul. But Aman, whose natural body mass is 62kg, will have to bring his weight down again to compete at the Wrestling Federation of India's 57kg trials.
Ravi Dahiya and the other top-three wrestlers in the category (based on the last trials held in Sonipat) will face off against each other, and the winner among them will lock horns with Aman.
The quota winner is unequivocally against these trials. “I would have already left for Russia for training if not for these trials. It is better that I train abroad with good wrestlers. I think I have done enough training in India and now it’s time to train and spar with my competitors.
"By the time trials are finished, Olympics will be almost there, so when do we start preparations? In my opinion trials should not be held," Aman added. “Recovery is also very important. Trials, weight-cut and recovery will eat up a lot of time before Olympics if trials are held again,” he explained.
Aman is not the only Indian Olympic quota winner who is having to grapple with weight management. Embattled wrestler Vinesh Phogat dropped her weight from 53kg, which is her pet category, down to 50kg before bagging a historic third consecutive Olympic quota.
But she did not do it out of choice. "I did the weight switch because I didn't have any option, not out of happiness," Vinesh was quoted as saying by the official United World Wrestling website, after winning the 50kg quota for India.
"I will have to manage my weight a lot better. I have brought myself down to 50kg after so long so I will try and maintain this as much as I can. It's not easy for me not to lose weight because my muscle mass is very high.
"Because of that, I gain weight easily. It doesn't matter how fit I am, I still gain weight because I have a lot of muscle mass. I just want to control my weight. I have four months left, and every day is very important," she said.
(With PTI inputs)
