Ravi Dahiya aims for gold medal in Olympics

Indian wrestler Ravi Dahiya is aiming to clinch a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 as he feels that is what the country needs.

"Medal toh medal hi hota hai but chahna toh yehi hai ki gold hi le aaye kyunki gold ki bahut zyada zarurat hai desh ko (a medal is a medal but my personal ambition is to bring home the gold as it is what India needs the most)" Dahiya told Sports Authority of India.

The 22-year-old secured his berth in the 57kg men's freestyle wrestling category and bagged a bronze at the World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan.

Dahiya was also included in the Sports Authority of India's Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), which, he feels, is going to benefit him a lot.

"TOPS is going to benefit me a lot. We can go outside for practice. There will be good physios and quality sparring partners. And the training can be taken a notch higher," he said.

Talking about his training plans, Dahiya said: "For 20-odd days, I would like to train in some other places in India like Shilaroo (Himachal Pradesh) or even go abroad for 20-25 days. This will complement my training at the Chhatrasal Stadium (in New Delhi) which is going on pretty well."

Dahiya is undergoing a rigorous training regime at the Chhatrasal Stadium which includes waking up at 3:30 am and starting the practice from 4:00 am. Deepak Poonia also follows the same training regime.

"I get free after training at 8 am and have some badaam (nuts) and juice as well as fruits later. Then we rest for 2-3 hours and start training again in the afternoon non-stop from 4 till 7:30," he said.

Sushil Kumar is Dahiya's idol and source of inspiration.

"I've been looking up to Sushil ji for many years. We used to think we are nothing in front of him after he became the double medalist in the Olympics. We get a lot of inspiration from him," Dahiya said.