With six medals, Chhatrasal is a breeding ground for Olympic winners | News Olympic Games Paris 2024

It is 5:00 p.m., dusk is falling. Wrestlers of various ages are trickling in to the Chhatrasal Akhada for their evening training. They are staying at the adjacent sports hostel. Coaches Jaibir Dahiya, Anil Mann and Pradeep Dahiya are waiting for them.
Everyone is doing the usual knee touch of their gurus, before they start their warm-up. The young boys are quite excited. There is a big smile on each of them.
A week ago, one of them had taken a flight to Paris. On Friday, he became the country’s Olympic bronze medalist. No wonder everyone on the wrestling academy was talking about Aman Sehrawat on Saturday. Chhatrasal Akhada is not new to such heights.
Three years ago, Chhatrasal interns Ravi Dahiya (silver) and Bajrang Punia (bronze) won Olympic medals in Tokyo. India has eight Olympic medals in wrestling so far, 6 of which have come from Chhatrasal. It started with Sushil Kumar, who won bronze in Beijing 2008 and then silver in London ’12.
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Sushil Kumar, trained in this Chhatrasal Akhada, won bronze in 2008 Beijing and then silver in 2012 London. At the same London Games, Yogeshwar Dutt took bronze for the country. It was Satpal Singh – also known as Guru Satpal among his pupils – who is the founder of the academy and trained the duo Sushil-Yogeshwar.
In 1988, Satpal and two other wrestling coaches – Ramphal Mann, also known as Guru Ramphal, and Pradeep Sharma – started the akhada on the grounds of the Chhatrasal Stadium in 1988. The stadium is located in the Model Town area of ​​Delhi and is situated somewhere between the Model Town and Azadpur metro stations. Over the years, the three coaches got help from another famous wrestling coach, Virender Kumar, in running the akhada.
During his wrestling days, Satpal emerged as one of India’s best wrestlers, winning the national title 16 times. On the international stage, Satpal won silver at the Commonwealth Games in 1974, 1978 and 1982. At the Asian Gameshe continually improved the colour of his medal, winning bronze at Tehran 1974, silver at Bangkok 1978 and finally gold at New Delhi 1982 in front of a home crowd. During these playing days, Satpal also represented India at two Olympic Games – Munich 1972 and Moscow 1980. But he failed to win a medal.

MEDALIST NURSERY: Rising wrestlers train at Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium on Saturday
“I would like my tees to be like this (I had a pain in my heart for not winning an Olympic medal). That’s why I started the akhada at Chhatrasal Stadium. I wanted to produce Olympic medallists for the country,” Satpal told TOI. “Now we have produced not one but six Olympic medallists.
“When I went to the Olympics, I had never seen a mat, practising on a mat was something completely different. European countries had been practising on mats for years then. I wanted to change that. I wanted to give our young wrestlers an equal chance to compete at the international level. We got our first mat at the Chhatrasal Akhada in 1992. Sushil, who was 15 then, trained on the mat and won gold at the World Cadet Games in 1998,” adds Satpal, now 69.
There are aspiring wrestlers training at the Chhatrasal not only from Delhi, Haryana and the adjoining areas, but there are also those who come from as far as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. One of them, Dhanraj, who hails from Maharashtra, says, “Yahan ki mitti mein kuch alag baat hai (Here’s something else.) That’s why I came here to train.”
As you enter the akhada premises, there are giant photographs of Sushil, Ravi, Yogeshwar, Bajrang hanging on the walls. The Chhatrasal Akhada is to wrestling what Sansarpur in Jalandhar, Punjab, is to hockey or what Azad Maidan in Mumbai is to cricket.
The wrestling academy has now become a state-of-the-art facility where modernity prevails in terms of equipment, but tradition is followed when it comes to the guru-shishya (master-disciple) relationship. There are many cadet-level, youth-level and also senior-level wrestlers training at the same time, under the same roof, and their motivation is the same. “I want to win an Olympic medal and make my country proud,” says Mohit Dahiya, 15, who recently won at the Youth Asian Championship level.
“I want to imitate Sushil platterRavi pehelwaan, Aman pehelwaan. They are my heroes. I know that if I train well and listen to my coach, I can win medals on the Olympic podium too,” adds 16-year-old Deepanshu. What makes the akhada so special? One of the current coaches, Jaibir Dahiya, who himself trained here in the 90s under Satpal, Ramphal and Pradeep, says, “When you train in the mud, you really become a tough wrestler. That’s where your foundation is laid.

“Mud training helps beginner wrestlers gain real strength. Moving in mud is difficult and so wrestlers have to use extra strength. So when they are put on the mat, they suddenly find themselves moving faster and more agile. All because of the hours they have spent in the mud,” he adds. Today, the akhada receives dozens of applications. Many youngsters want to train under the coaches of the Chhatrasal. So how are the selections made?
“It’s a trial. Only those who we think have a future in wrestling are enrolled. Our training is very tough and rigorous, and we push the youngsters to their limits. Our aim is to secure medals for the country, so the preparation – from a young age – is very robust,” says Anil Mann, another coach, who was a trainee in the past.
There is a small temple outside the living quarters. Before their daily routine, wrestlers pray to Lord Hanuman – the favorite deity of the wrestling community – and ask for strength.
Before we leave, coach Jaibir points to five or six young wrestlers and says, “These will win Olympic medals in the future, I can guarantee you that.”