Wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya opens up about the bite he endured at Tokyo Games

Indian wrestler Ravi Kumar Dahiya became the second and only Indian to get a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The other Indian to bring home the silver medal was weightlifter Mirabai Chanu.

The Indian wrestler lost a tightly contested men’s freestyle 57kg final to world champion Zavur Uguev of the ROC. While Dahiya tried every trick in the book to breach his opponent’s defence but failed at it.

En route to his final, Ravi Kumar Dahiya scripted a brilliant comeback in the semi-final as he won the bout after being down 2-9 against Kazakhstan’s Nurislam Sanayev.

The Indian wrestler put his wrestling acumen to the test and defeated Nurislam by pinfall in the dying seconds of the game.

However, the Indian wrestler endured a painful bite on his biceps from the opponent. 

Talking about the bite, the wrestler said: ‘Wrestling mein to log jhagde aur maar pitai pe aa jaate hain bhaisaab, ye to choti baat hai’ (people get involved in fights, altercations and even physical confrontations in wrestling; this is a very small thing).”

“I left memories of that (bite) on the mat. I continued to feel the pain, of course (laughs), but didn’t have any hard feelings for him (Kazakh wrestler who bit Ravi),” the Times of India quoted Ravi as saying.

“When I came for the weigh-in the next day, Sanayev was already there. He came and shook hands with me. I greeted him too, because I had already forgotten everything. He hugged me and said – ‘sorry brother’. I smiled and hugged him back. We are friends. We also shared a few laughs on other topics,” the Olympic silver medallist said.

India has won a total of 7 wrestling Olympic medals.

KD Jadhav (bronze in 1952), Sushil Kumar (bronze in 2008 and silver in 2012), Yogeshwar Dutt (bronze in 2012), Sakshi Malik (bronze in 2016) and now Ravi and Bajrang (silver and bronze, respectively, in 2020).