When Yogeshwar Dutt battled multiple injuries to win London Olympics bronze

Back in the 2012 London Olympics, Yogeshwar Dutt won the bronze medal. However, the road to finishing on the podium was not easy for the wrestler by any stretch of the imagination. In 2009, he sustained a serious knee injury which kept him out of the game for quite some time.

The injury was severe to the extent that his career could have ended. But instead of giving up, Dutt picked himself up and secured a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. However, another injury forced him to sit on the sidelines. Nevertheless, he came back and won the gold medal at the 2012 Asian Wrestling Championships, ahead of the Olympics.

Yogeshwar Dutt gets glory in London Olympics

In London, Yogeshwar Dutt began with a 3-1 win over Antolie Ilarionovitch Guidea in his first bout. However, he lost in the pre quarterfinals to Russia’s Besik Kudukhov, also a four-time world champion.

Adding insult to injury, Dutt injured his eye during the bout. From there on, the rub of the green started going in his way. Since Kudukhov made his way through to the final, Dutt got another shot at a medal through the repechage rounds. With his vision not at his best, he took down some of the world’s best in the next 45 minutes to win bronze.

Dutt got the better of Franklin Gomez of Puerto Rico in the first repechage round after which he defeated Iran’s Masoud Esmaeilpour in the second. The wins meant that he fought with Ri Jong-Myong of North Korea in the bronze medal match. Dutt did not let the chance go and came up trumps.

After his heroics in the London Olympics, Dutt won the Khel Ratna award followed by the prestigious Padma Shri in 2013. Apart from his impressive showing in the Olympics, Dutt won two gold medals in the Commonwealth Games.