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Journalism of Courage
2024 Paris Olympics bronze medal-winning wrestler Aman Sehrawat has been suspended for a year by the Wrestling Federation of India on Tuesday effective from September 23. The federation’s ruling bars him from all wrestling related activities.
Aman, who won India’s solitary wrestling medal at the Paris Games, was suspended by the WFI for missing weight at the World Wrestling Championships in Zagreb last month. Set to compete in the 57 kg category at the Worlds, Aman couldn’t make weight before the competition and cited illness as the reason. He was disqualified from competition by the United World Wrestling, the world body of the sport.
“The disciplinary committee has taken action on him for missing weight at the World Championships. Earlier, another wrestler (Neha Sangwan) was suspended for missing weight at the U20 World Championships. The decision is taken to make sure that there are no such lapses in the future,” WFI President Sanjay Singh told The Indian Express. The WFI President also maintained that the federation expects high standards of discipline from Sehrawat given he is an Olympic medallist.
Bizarrely, Aman’s coaching staff also received formal warnings despite not being present at the World Championships. The Olympic medallist was being coached by the WFI coaching staff present for all Indian wrestlers at the event.
After his failure to make weight at the Worlds, WFI sent him a show cause notice asking for his explanation. During the weigh-in at the World Championships, Aman was 1.7kg over the limit and was thus ruled out of the tournament.
Aman returned to India and presented himself in front of the committee explaining the cause. However, the federation’s disciplinary committee deemed his explanation “unsatisfactory.”
“He was asked to explain it in front of the disciplinary committee of WFI and he explained it, accepting his mistake,” a WFI source close to the development confirmed.
With less than one year to go for the 2026 Asian Games, wrestling events are scheduled from September 30-October 3. This comes as a setback for Indian medal hopes in the sport at the continental showpiece.
A source said that Aman would get further opportunities to explain his case and defend himself. “The communication has been sent to him and the committee will ask him to be present again but the timeline for the same is not clear at the moment,” the source added. The WFI has a history of making similar decisions but then also going back on their rulings.
This is the second such case of an Indian wrestler failing to make weight at a World Championships. Earlier in the month of August, Neha Sangwan was barred by UWW from competing in the 59kg category at the U20 World Championships. As reported by this newspaper, Neha was handed a suspension of two years by the WFI.
