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A persistent stomach ache made everything harder. He could not digest what he ate. He missed weight for the World Championship and could not compete in the continental event. At times, even enduring the daily grind of wrestling felt like a chore. And then there was the mind. “My motivation went down a lot,” he says. “I began over-thinking, wondering how I missed tournaments.”

The 23-year-old had left Paris with a simple plan for the next four years: to win everything on the way to Los Angeles. Instead, tournaments were going ahead without him. And the more he thought about the ones he had missed, the more the fire dimmed.

India’s Aman Sehrawat celebrates with the gold medal after winning the men’s freestyle 57kg gold medal bout.

On Saturday, in his first competition in the 57kg category since Paris, it flickered back to life. Aman defeated reigning world champion Han Chong-Song 11-7 to win gold, giving India its second wrestling title after Sujeet Kalkal opened the account a day earlier.

Han, though, had no intention of letting him ease back into the big stage. He stayed low, darting underneath Aman’s hands and snapping at his legs whenever the Indian gave him an opening. Aman had begun beautifully, getting to the legs himself and building a 6-1 lead, but Han slowly changed the nature of the bout. At one point, he appeared to hurt his ankle, only to spring back up and immediately snap at Aman’s legs, dragging him into another exchange.

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Then the comeback gathered pace. Han kept getting underneath Aman, turning a final that had seemed under control into a scramble. 6-1 became 6-3, then 6-5, and finally 6-7. Aman had spent much of the bout dictating where the wrestling would happen; suddenly, he was reacting to Han.

Aman resisted the urge to chase the score. Instead, he went back to his opponent’s legs. He drove through Han to reclaim the lead, found another takedown soon after and then used a gut wrench to roll the North Korean over, stretching the advantage to 10-7. Han scrambled desperately, but Aman stayed attached. With the clock running down, he drove him towards the boundary and forced the final step-out, which made it 11-7.

There was no desperate throw, no spectacular rescue. Aman simply returned to the wrestling he trusted, and once he did, Han could not keep him off.

***

“This medal feels good. But winning a medal is not a big deal,” he says. “It’s a big deal to remain consistent and retain it.”

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The 57kg category, he knows, does not wait for anyone, more so in India, where the depth is intense. One tournament produces a medal winner; the next can produce somebody else in his place. “So it’s not a small thing to maintain this level,” he says.

Perhaps that is why this gold means more to him than other medals on his shelf. It is proof that the road to Los Angeles has not gone off course, even if it did not follow the route he imagined. “2025 was very strange for me,” he says. “It’s not like my performances were bad. I was winning all the trials at home one-sided. I won the 2026 Asian Championships convincingly. I wasn’t down at any point. But I couldn’t compete at the World Championship or the Asian Championship. I felt empty at one level.”

There is little self-pity in the way he recounts it. More frustration, perhaps, at how his stomach derailed a plan he had already made for himself.

Missing the World Championships hurt particularly badly. Aman had an Olympic bronze, an Asian Championships silver and the belief that a world title was within reach. The infection prevented him from making weight, and the opportunity passed.

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“I will regret it for a long time,” he says. “It was a good time to win the World Championship. Sushil Pehlwan has won the World Championship for India. I felt I had a chance to match his achievement.”

Now, after beating the reigning world champion, he looks at that missed opportunity differently. “Koi nahi,” he tells himself. “Ab jo World Championship hai, woh tere naam hai.” Never mind. The next World Championship is yours.

The Asian Games gold will not recover the year he lost. “But this medal will definitely reignite fire,” he says. “I have won against the world champion, so I have a good chance to become a world champion myself.” He pauses. “Even for the preparation for the Olympics, in fact, this will keep me motivated.”

Until recently, the LA Olympics medal was the image on his phone. After the selection trials, he changed it to an Asian Games gold. It was something to chase, something to manifest.

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Now, with the real Asian Games gold medal in his hand, he will change it back. The LA medal gets the wallpaper again.