Maintaining weight seems to be the biggest problem facing the Indian frontrunners in the Paris Olympics. After Vinesh Phogat, another case of Aman Sehrawat has come to light. We made the country proud by winning the bronze medal in the 57 kg category on Friday. But before winning this medal, he had to exercise overnight to reduce his weight. It is said that after losing the semi-final match, Aman Sehrawat's weight had increased by 4.6 kg. Which he reduced in just 10 hours with his coach. Before the bronze medal match, Aman could not sleep the whole night and kept trying to reduce weight.
Aman Sehrawat won the bronze medal after defeating Darian Toi Cruz 13-5 on Friday, August 9. Aman also became the youngest athlete to win an Olympic medal for India in an individual event.
Gained so much weight?
According to PTI, after losing in the semi-finals on Thursday, Aman Sehrawat's weight was reduced to 61.5 kg. Which was 4.5 kg more than the approved weight in the men's 57 kg category. The biggest challenge before India's two senior coaches Jagmander Singh and Virendra Dahiya was how to reduce Aman's weight before the bronze medal match.
After what happened with Vinesh Phogat, another blow was unbearable. Vinesh was disqualified from the gold medal match in the women's 50 kg category due to being just 100 grams overweight. Then now she is also fighting a legal battle against this decision.
6.30 pm in weight lifting exercise
After losing the semi-final to Japan's Rei Higuchi, Aman did not have much time. This mission of weight loss started with a one and a half hour mat session. During this, the senior coaches made him stand and wrestle and then bathed him in hot water for an hour.
At 12.30 we left for the gym where we ran on the treadmill for an hour without stopping. Sweating helps in weight loss for which he took five sessions of 5-minute sauna bath followed by a 30-minute break. By the end of the last semester, Aman weighed 900 grams more. He was given a massage and then the coaches asked Aman to do light jogging.
This was followed by a 15-minute running session. By 4.30 am, Aman weighed 56.9 kg, which was 100 grams less than his weight category. Seeing his weight, the trainers and pioneers heaved a sigh of relief. In between these sessions, Aman was given warm water with lemon and honey and some coffee to drink. After that, Aman could not sleep. We were told that he watched videos of wrestling matches all night.
Coach Dahiya said that we kept checking her weight every hour. We could not sleep the whole night. Not even during the day. Weight loss is a normal thing for us. But now there was tension because of what happened (with Vinesh Phogat). There was a lot of tension. We cannot let another medal slip away.