Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav (January 15, 1926 – August 14, 1984) was an Indian athlete. He is best known as a wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He was the first athlete from independent India to win an individual medal in the Olympics.
Khashaba, who had no experience of mat wrestling, won five rounds in the bantamweight section at Helsinki to meet Japan’s Shohachi Ishii and lost by a point in a 15 minutes bout. Ishii later went on to win the gold. Immediately after this match, Jadhav was asked to fight with Soviet Union’s Rashid Mammadbeyov.
As per the rules, Jadhav should have got 30 minutes to break after the bout, but Indian officials who went with the Indian delegation were not present on the spot to present his case. He lost to Mammadbeyov, who reached the final and Jadhav had to content with bronze.
Khashaba met with a road accident and succumbed to injuries in 1984, and the government recognized his contribution only in 2001 by awarding him Arjuna Award posthumously. But even this award came after series of agitations by villagers. Villagers have been demanding Padma Award for Jadhav.
Credit : Business Line
Picture Credit : Google
