Aman Sehrawat tipped the scales at 61.5kg following his loss in the semifinals on Thursday -- which was 4.5 kilograms more than the allowable limit in the men's 57kg category.
In the following 10 hours, he diligently worked alongside his Indian coaches to shed 4.6kg. Jagmander Singh and Virender Dahiya, the two senior Indian coaches accompanying the six-member wrestling contingent, now had a specific goal.
They couldn't afford another setback after facing a similar situation with Vinesh Phogat, who is currently contesting her disqualification from the women's 50kg final due to exceeding the weight limit by 100g during the second-day weigh-in.
The 21-year-old Aman suffered defeat in the semifinal against Japan's Rei Higuchi at around 6:30 pm. Time was of the essence.
The 'operation' started with a one-and-a-half-hour mat session where the two senior coaches involved him in standing wrestling, which was followed by a one-hour hot bath session.
At 12:30, they went to the gym, where Aman had an uninterrupted one-hour run on the treadmill.
The perspiration would aid in weight reduction. Following that, he had a 30-minute break and then five 5-minute sauna bath sessions.
At the end of the final session, Aman weighed 900g more. He was then given a massage, and the coaches instructed the Chhatarsal trainee to engage in light jogging.
This was succeeded by five 15-minute running sessions. By 4:30 am, Aman weighed 56.9kg -- 100g less. The coaches and the wrestler were relieved.
During these sessions, Aman was provided with lukewarm water with lemon and honey and a small amount of coffee.
Aman would not sleep after that.
“I watched videos of wrestling bouts the whole night.” “We kept checking his weight every hour. We didn't sleep the whole night, not even during the day,” said coach Dahiya.
“Weight cutting is routine and normal for us, but there was tension- a lot of tension due to what happened the other day (with Vinesh). We could not let slip another medal,” said Dahiya.
Aman's tireless efforts paid off when he secured the bronze medal, triumphing over Puerto Rico's Darian Cruz last Friday to become the youngest Indian Olympic medalist ever.
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