Arjuna Award winner and Asian Championships gold medalist Narsingh Yadav participated in the 2012 London Olympics.
Narsingh Yadav was elected chairman of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Athletes’ Commission on Wednesday. The former Commonwealth Games gold medalist was appointed to the role as part of a mandate from the sport’s governing body (UWW).
In total, eight members were vying to fill the seven places on the athletes’ commission. After a ballot poll, seven people chose Narsingh as chairman of the commission.
Narsingh had been in the news before the 2016 Olympics. Two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar, who missed his qualification due to injury, requested a trial fight against the Games-bound wrestler.
Sushil approached the Delhi High Court and only after his appeal was rejected was it confirmed that Narsingh would go to the Rio Olympics.
However, in a surprise turn of events, Narsingh failed two doping tests before the Games and was suspended for four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, even though the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) had cleared him on the grounds that his test failure was the result of sabotage.
The CAS decision came a day before his opening fight, forcing him to leave the host city, Rio de Janeiro, without stepping on the mat. The ban ended in July 2020 and he argued that the entire episode was a case of sabotage.
The other elected members of the athletes’ commission were Sahil (Delhi), Smitha AS (Kerala), Bharti Bhaghei (UP), Khushboo S Pawar (Gujarat), Nikki (Haryana) and Sweta Dubey (Bengal).
United World Wrestling, while lifting the suspension of WFI, had said the move was subject to the Sanjay Singh-led national federation setting up an athletes’ commission to resolve the grapplers’ grievances.
Six top wrestlers, including Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Asian Games gold medalist Vinesh Phogat, protested against WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, demanding his arrest while accusing him of sexual harassment against female wrestlers.
The Sports Ministry had suspended the WFI and established an ad hoc IOA committee to manage the day-to-day functioning of the federation.
The UWW also temporarily suspended the WFI on August 23, after the Indian body failed to hold new elections.
But after elections were held in December and Sanjay Singh, a close aide of Brij Bhushan, was elected president, he wrote to the UWW to lift the suspension.
The UWW office lifted the ban in February, on the condition that the WFI constitutes its athletes’ commission by July 1, 2024.
He had demanded that the commission include active or retired athletes for a maximum period of four years.
The WFI had also immediately provided the UWW with a written guarantee that all wrestlers, including those protesting, would be considered for participation in competitions, particularly trials for the Olympic Games and any other major national and international events. .
