“I was twelve years old when sports teacher at my school suggested me to join wrestling. There was going to be an inter-school wrestling competition and he wanted me to participate for the same. He took my fitness test and started training me for the same and I defeated my opponent in that inter-school competition. This was a major booster for me and soon I started practicing for district level. At the district level I got defeated by my opponent but while leaving the wrestling ring I said him that next time I will come back and beat you down. I went under rigorous training and became very much serious towards the sport and the very next year I went to play districts again and within the first 20 seconds of the match I defeated the same guy and became district level champion and since then there was no stopping.

I remained a champion for district as well as for State for few years. Meanwhile I was also playing Judo and Weightlifting which are quite similar to wrestling where I have been two times district champion for judo and the only player from the city to win Bronze medal in weightlifting. I was happy with my sport and how I was turning into a very good athlete but the destiny had some other plans for me as the Sports Authorities passed a new law ruling out that ‘Clean Shave is compulsory for the boxing players’. I am a Sikh and I can’t shave my beard so I fought a lot with the authorities for the same but they said that either you can leave the sport or get your beard shaved. I decided to never play wrestling and never enter the stadium. I told the authorities that I will represent India for another sport.

Soon I came to know about Wushu sport which is the National Game of China; Wushu is basically a combination of karate, kickboxing, and wrestling and that sport is also played in India. I started my training from the scratch and gave up social life and also quit junk food. I was kept on strict healthy diet and went under serious training in Haryana and Punjab. Soon I got grip on the game and from District I reached to State and from State I reached to National and became the First Fighter from the state to win a Bronze medal at the National level. Later I got selected for the International level where I had to represent our country and I went to Georgia for the competition and had to fight against three countries. The fight was very tough and very much unpredictable but after lot of shedding of blood I finally won Bronze for the country. The journey of my life has been like a wrestling game where every time life has tried to knock me down but I have always stood up and fought the battles and have came out winning. So, far I have won 35 medals and now I am preparing for World Cup 2017 and Asian Cup 2018. The credit for my success goes to my coach Mr Badrinath Pandey and my father Jaswinder Singh.

Any Message?

I would like more and more parents to support their kids who want to make a future in sports.”

Story of: Amandeep Singh

Story By – Pray Bavishi | Humans of Amdavad

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