Yogeshwar Dutt (born 2 November 1982) is an Indian freestyle wrestler. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the 60 kg category. He was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

in 2013. He won gold medals at the 2010 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games. He is one of only 5 male wrestlers in India to win an Olympic medal.

Early life

Dutt was born in Bhainswal Kalan village in

Sonipat district Sonipat district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana state in North India. Sonipat town is the district headquarters. It is a part of National Capital Region. It is bordered by Delhi, Panipat, Rohtak, Jind, Jhajjar and Baghpat (Uttar Pr ...

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land a ...

. He first started wrestling at the age of eight in his native village and idolised Balraj Pehlwan. He was trained by coach Ramphal.

Career

2006 Asian Games

Yogeshwar had lost his father on 3 August 2006 just nine days before he boarded the flight to Doha for the Asian Games. He also sustained a knee injury, but despite all the emotional and physical trauma he managed to win the bronze in the 60 kg category at the 15th Asian Games at

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

2010 Commonwealth Games

At the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, Yogeshwar overcame a career-threatening knee injury to win the 60 kg title. Yogeshwar, who went past Australian Farzad Tarash (16–0, 17–0), South African Marius Loots (7–1) and England's Sasha Madyarchyk (4–4, 8–0) on his way to the final, came up with an exceptionally skilful performance to win the gold for India.

2012 Summer Olympics

On 12 August 2012, Yogeshwar Dutt provided a late boost to India's medals tally in the

2012 London Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

by claiming a memorable bronze in the Men's freestyle 60 kg, thus becoming the third Indian wrestler to win an Olympic medal after K D Jadhav in 1952 and Sushil Kumar in 2008 and 2012. He had defeated North Korean Ri Jong-Myong in the bronze medal bout thus winning the fifth medal for Indian contingent at the London Olympics 2012. Earlier, Yogeshwar qualified for the 2012 Olympics by winning a silver medal at an Asian qualification tournament in

Astana Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...

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where he lost to Iranian Masoud Esmaeilpour (2–3, 0–1) in the final. At the Olympics he lost to the Russian B Kudukhov 1–0, 2–0 and was knocked out from the pre-quarterfinal round. He got a chance to contest in the repechage rounds as Kudukhov reached the finals of the event. In his first repechage round he went on to beat Franklin Gómez of Puerto Rico with a score of 1–0, 1–0. He got lucky against his opponent, winning the toss on both the occasions to earn a clinch position. Yogeshwar then scored 7–5 to beat Masoud Esmaeilpour with an aggregate of counted points 3–1 in Repechage Round 2. Esmaeilpour had beaten Yogeshwar at the Asian qualifications earlier that year. He finally beat his North Korean opponent to clinch the bronze medal (0–1, 1–0, 6–0). He was exceptional in the last round, and clinched it in just 1:02 minutes.

2014 Commonwealth Games

Yogeshwar Dutt won the gold medal in the men's 65 kg freestyle category by beating Canada's Jevon Balfour 10–0 in the finals. Yogeshwar had earlier beaten Alex Gladkov of Scotland 4–0 in the pre-quarters and then easily defeated another Scottish wrestler Gareth Jones in the quarterfinals by employing his trademark Fitele (leg twisting) technique that he had used while winning the bronze medal at the

. In the semi-finals, Yogeshwar successfully used his favourite technique again to get the better of Sri Lanka's Chamara Perera in just two minutes and three seconds. Yogeshwar won with a 0–5 verdict after taking a 10–0 lead on technical points.

2014 Asian Games

Yogeshwar Dutt won the Gold in the 65 kg freestyle wrestling category by defeating Zalimkhan Yusupov of

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

in the final at the

Asian games 2014 Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

. Dutt won a closely fought final 1–0. Earlier, he defeated the opponent from China in the semi-final by Fall in another closely fought bout in which Dutt was trailing almost until the end. He defeated Jinhyok Kang of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

in the quarterfinal.

2015

In 2015, he was clubbed into the ‘Icon’ category by Haryana Hammers– one of the six teams playing under the first edition of Pro Wrestling League (PWL), which was held from 10 to 27 December in six Indian cities.

Political career

Dutt joined

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

in September 2019.

Awards, rewards and recognition

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna The Khel Ratna Award (), officially known as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award ( Major Dhyan Chand Sport Jewel Award), is the highest sporting honour of India. It is awarded annually by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Governm ...

Award 2012 given by Government of India ; For the bronze medal at 2012 London Olympic * cash reward from the Haryana Government. * 4x4 vehicle from a PSU bankAfter bronze, Dutt looks to go all the way at Worlds
Indian Express (16 August 2012).

References

External links