We had to wait till the closing ceremony to catch a glimpse of Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Bajrang Punia smiling. On the podium, on the mat, they...
We had to wait till the closing ceremony to catch a glimpse of Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Bajrang Punia smiling. On the podium, on the mat, they had cut such stoic figures that one might have thought that had bitterly failed.
Instead, Dahiya had won a rare silver and Punia, an equally valuable bronze. Olympic medals don’t come along easily for India but perhaps their reactions were only an indication of the expectations they had from themselves.
For them, it wasn’t about what others wanted from them. It was about what they wanted for themselves. A silver would have pleased most. A bronze is special too. But they had their sights set higher... on gold.
Finally, Ravi Kumar Dahiya is smiling :) pic.twitter.com/2kM7tBQIXe
— Ashish Magotra (@clutchplay) August 8, 2021
With Dahiya, you could feel it. The anguish was clearly visible. As he stood on the podium, he just couldn’t break into a smile. He was happy but he had wanted more.
He lost to reigning world champion Zavur Uguev, a wrestler who has dominated the weight category for almost four years now. Try as he might, he wasn’t able to breach the defenses of a man who has made it a habit of not losing big finals.
“I did not come...
