The gym session has ticked past the hour mark. It’s the leg day, and Ravi Dahiya can ill-afford to skip it. The muscle definition of his left quadricep is impressive; by comparison, the right quad looks emaciated. Two incision scars run across the right patella, evidence of the surgery he underwent in July last year.
The ripping, sweat-drenched upper body and the familiar unruly mop of wet hair extenuate the work he has put in for the day. For a man known to barely smile even on the podium, Dahiya is surprisingly in good spirits. He laughs liberally, sometimes at his own wisecracks, other times at the precipice at which his career stands.
From being the country’s best 57kg male wrestler until a couple of years back to losing consecutive domestic selection trials — he failed in the Asian Games trials last July and lost to fellow Chhatrasal Stadium trainee Aman Sehrawat in March in the Olympic qualification trials — his career has been on a sticky wicket of late.
“What else can I do but laugh at how things have shaped up?” he says when one meets him at Chhatrasal. He has all but missed the bus for the Paris Olympics after the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) decided against holding the final selection trials. That means Aman will represent India as the lone freestyle wrestler in Paris, in Dahiya’s 57kg class.
“I was quite shocked when I heard,” Dahiya says about WFI’s May 21 decision not to hold trials. “Just a few months back, they had announced their policy of holding trials. I fail to understand why.”
The next day, Dahiya met the Director General, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) officials to plead his case. He even called up the WFI top brass and visited the previous WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at his Delhi residence.
“I have no idea who can help, so I am running around. I have been told there is 99% chance of WFI not changing its decision. I am hoping for that 1 percent. As an athlete, I am conditioned to go for that one percent. In our sport, bouts can be decided in the last second. So, there is still hope, no matter how dim.”
Dahiya’s optimism may be shortlived. “The Olympics squad will not change. WFI decided not to conduct the trials as there is barely any time left for the Budapest Ranking Series; we wanted to announce the team before that,” a senior WFI official said.
WFI’s policy shift alone is not responsible for Dahiya’s situation. His knee injury, he admits, could have been managed better.
“Maybe I could have gone for the surgery earlier to give myself more time to recover. The knee will never feel the same again. Even now, sometimes during bouts, I feel the discomfort. All of that does have a bearing on the confidence too.”
Though not in ideal shape for the Olympics barely two months away, the 26-year-old still wants to fight for an opportunity. He is far too emotionally invested in the dream.
“An athlete’s life is not easy. My journey for Paris started the moment my final bout in Tokyo ended. Many people ask me why I wasn’t happy on the podium. That’s because I knew I could have won gold. I have dreamt of it each day since then.”
Proof of that yearning for Olympic gold was provided on a visit to his accommodation, old and new, at the Chhatrasal Stadium . In the tiny room that has been his lodging for years, and the government accommodation provided to him as an assistant director in Delhi’s education department, Dahiya has pasted pictures of the Paris gold medal on every wall. The Paris gold is everywhere, be it the giant framed photograph in his new house or the WhatsApp DP. A source of great inspiration that has become a gnawing pain.
“The dream is shattered. God willing, I will realise it someday, but in this moment, it hurts. I don’t know what the future holds. I will certainly move to a higher weight class later, but everything appears hazy at present.”
For now, he has found solace in a Hindi translation of David Schwartz’s ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’, and his dad. “That book has been with me for a few years and I am reading it again. The biggest surprise was my introvert father. We don’t open up to each other even though he visits me every morning. The day WFI’s decision came, he told me not to worry and that God has the best plans for me. It was the most sensitive thing he had spoken to me in years.”
Still, Dahiya may need a turnaround to overcome the pain.
“People say injuries are an athlete’s ornaments. Well, I don’t want any more ornaments,” he laughs.