My Story: They Asked Me That Either You Can Leave The Sport Or Get Your Beard Shaved

“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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