From bitter fights to dope shame, Indian Olympic team's tryst with controversies

NEW DELHI: Kaka Pawar and Pappu Yadav were virtually unknown entities until the 1996 Olympics. The duo had only two things in common -- they were wrestlers and were willing to fight it out on and off the mat to represent India in 48kg category.

Almost 28 years later, few in the wrestling circles would have forgotten that eventful day when the two fought tooth and nail at the IG Stadium for a place in the Indian team. Yadav won the controversial trial bout but was not allowed to participate at the Games after failing to clear the weigh-in at Atlanta.

Indian sports in general and wrestling in particular didn't seem to learn from the unappetizing past as contingents bound for the quadrennial showpiece invariably end up carrying the extra burden of controversies.

As six Indian grapplers aim to build on the legacy of past heroes like Sushil Kumar, Yogesh Dutt and Sakshi Malik among others, they know they have had to cross several hurdles to make it to the Paris-bound squad, including enduring a year-long protest that left their preparations in disarray.

Both Pawar and Yadav, now in their 50s, were probably victims of the same setup that exists even today, which led to one of the most bitter slugfests ever witnessed in sports in the country.

While state lobbies worked in the background, Pawar and Pappu battled for a wildcard spot given by the international wrestling body in the 48kg category.

With political bigwigs throwing their weight behind the two wrestlers, it turned out to be a potboiler, with allegations of fixing referees to rigging of weigh-in flying thick and fast.

Though Yadav won the controversial bout and went to Atlanta, he failed at the weigh-in and returned without a fight, the same fate Narsingh Yadav met with at the 2016 Rio Olympics, though for a different reason.

Narsingh had surprised many by winning India the Olympic quota in the 74kg free-style category. With the international wrestling federation scrapping two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar's weight category (66kg), the grappler had to move up to the 74kg category.

Sushil, in the hope of securing a hat-trick of medals at the Olympics, requested for the trials to decide who among him and Narsingh should go to Rio. But, with the Delhi High Court dismissing Sushil's petition challenging Narsingh's selection, the latter got the go-ahead.

However, three weeks before the Olympics, Narsingh tested positive for a banned drug. The wrestler cried sabotage and was exonerated of doping charges by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).

However, his dream of competing at Olympics came to an end with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upholding the World Anti Doping Agency's appeal against the clean chit given to him by NADA.

Wrestling was again in the news for the wrong reasons ahead of the Paris Olympics with six top grapplers going on a year-long protest against then WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, which resulted in the national body being suspended by both the United World Wrestling and the Sports Ministry for different reasons.

While a new national federation under a fresh set of office-bearers is in place, the damage the protest and court cases have done to Indian wrestling can be seen in the number of male grapplers qualifying for Paris. Aman Sehrawat will be the only male wrestler trying out his luck at the quadrennial showpiece.

Doping disgrace in weightlifting

Weightlifting has brought India a fair bit of glory at the Olympics with Karnam Malleswari winning the bronze at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Mirabai Chanu clinching silver in Tokyo 2021, but Sanamacha Chanu and Pratima Kumari brought disgrace in the 2004 Athens edition thanks to doping, days after double-trap shooter RVS Rathore had earned India its first individual silver at the Games.

Another lifter, Monika Devi, India's lone entry in the discipline at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, missed the event after testing positive for an anabolic salt.

Shooters have been the pride of the Indian contingent ever since Rathore won the silver and Abhinav Bindra returned home with the country's first individual gold from Beijing in 2008.

Pistol marksman Vijay Kumar and rifle shooter Gagan Narang kept that tradition intact in 2012 London before Indian shooting hit a roadblock and failed to win a medal in 2016 Rio and Tokyo 2021.

Last time, the shooters' campaign went off-track much before they left for Tokyo. It was mired in controversy following young pistol exponent Manu Bhaker's much-publicised fallout with coach Jaspal Rana. Her pistol malfunction at the Games, and the events that unfolded, only added to the feeling of despondency.

The then national shooting federation chief Raninder Singh lashed out at Jaspal, calling him a "negative factor", while promising an overhaul of coaches.

With a record number of 21 Indian shooters set to compete in Paris in a few days' time, there is hope they will break the jinx this time around.

But several former shooters, including Asian Games gold medallist double-trap exponent Ronjan Sodhi and 2012 London Olympics rapid-fire silver medallist Vijay Kumar, among others, feel the preparations have been far from ideal, partly due to inordinate delay in the selection of the team and the way the preparations have been handled.