Sushil Kumar, India’s freestyle wrestler has made us proud many times by winning laurels for the country. Since 2008, there has been no mega sporting event where India does not pin hopes on the wrestler. It was in 1998 that Sushil Kumar’s got his first success where he bagged a gold medal at the World Cadet Games. Kumar bagged another Gold Medal in Asian Junior Wrestling Championships.

However, his dream run was stopped when Kumar fared badly at 2004 Olympic Games, Athens. However, after winning a couple of golds in 2005 and 2007’s Commonwealth wrestling championships, he never looked back. As the wrestler turns 35 today, here are a few 10 facts about the wrestler.

  • Sushil Kumar got interested in wrestling at the age of 14 and it was his father Diwan Singh who inspired him to pursue his passion. His father himself was a wrestler.

  • His cousin Sandeep, a local wrestler gave up wrestling so that he could pursue his dreams.

  • Kumar trained in pehlwani wrestling at the akhada (wrestling school) in the Chhatrasal Stadium.

  • Sushil Kumar’s father was a DTCDC driver and his mother was a homemaker.

  • The wrestler is a vegetarian. His PETA’s campaign reads, “Look at me, I defeated non-vegetarians from America and Kazakhstan in the Olympics. So, you can see that vegetarians have a lot of strength.”

  • He refused to be a part of a liquor brand to avoid sending out a wrong message to the youngsters of the country.

  • Kumar is an ardent fan of football and adores Lionel Messi.

  • Virender Sehwag is his favourite cricketer.

  • Sushil Kumar was the first wrestler to win the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

  • He now works for Indian Railways as an assistant commercial manager.

We wish Sushil Kumar a very Happy Birthday!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 26, 2018 12:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).