Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav (15 January 1925 – 14 August 1984) was an Indian freestyle wrestler. He is best known for winning a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. He was the first athlete from independent

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

to win an individual medal in the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

. After Norman Pritchard who won two silver medals in athletics in 1900 under colonial India, Khashaba was the first individual athlete from independent India to win a medal at the Olympics.Shariff, Faisa
"Khashba Jhadhav, the hero we owe an apology to ...,"
Rediff.com; retrieved 2012-7-20. In the years before Khashaba, India would only win gold medals in field hockey, a team sport. He is the only Indian Olympic medalist who never received a Padma Award. Khashaba was extremely nimble on his feet, which made him different from other wrestlers of his time. English coach Rees Gardner saw this trait in him and trained him prior to the 1948 Olympic games. He belonged to Goleshwar village near Karad. He was posthumously awarded

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

in 2000 for his contribution to wrestling.

Childhood

Born in a village called Goleshwar in Karad taluka of District Satara in

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

State, KD Jadhav was the youngest of five sons of a renowned wrestler Dadasaheb Jadhav. He did his schooling in Tilak High School in

Karad Karad is a city in Satara district of Indian States and territories of India, state of Maharashtra. It is located 302 km (180.19 miles) from Mumbai, 74 km from Sangli and 162 km from Pune. It lies at the confluence of Koyna R ...

taluka of Satara district between 1940 and 1947. He grew up in a household that lived and breathed wrestling. He participated in the Quit India Movement providing shelter and a hiding place to the revolutionaries, circulating letters against the British were some of his contributions to the movement. He resolved to unfurl the tricolor flag in Olympic on Independence Day 15 August 1947.

Wrestling career

His father Dadasaheb was a wrestling coach and he initiated Khashaba into wrestling at the age of five. His wrestling mentors in college were Baburao Balawde and Belapuri Guruji. Starting his wrestling career in 1948, he first came into the limelight at the 1948 London Olympics when he finished 6th in the flyweight category. He was the first Indian to achieve such a high position in the individual category. Despite being new to wrestling on a mat as well as the international rules of wrestling, Jadhav's 6th-place finish was no mean feat at that time. For the next four years, Jadhav trained even harder for the Helsinki Olympics where he moved up one weight category and participated in the bantamweight category (57 kg), which saw wrestlers from twenty-four countries. He went on to defeat wrestlers from countries like Mexico, Germany and Canada, before losing his semi-final bout, but he came back stronger to win the bronze medal which made him the first ever individual Olympic medallist of independent India.

1948 Summer Olympics

Jadhav's first feel of the big stage was at the 1948 London Olympics; his journey was funded by the Maharaja of Kolhapur. During his stay in London, he was trained by Rees Gardner, a former lightweight World champion from the United States. It was Gardner's guidance that saw Jadhav finish sixth in the flyweight section, despite being unfamiliar with wrestling on the mat. He stunned the audience by defeating the Australian wrestler Bert Harris in the first few minutes of the bout. He went on to defeat Billy Jernigan of the US, but lost to Mansour Raeisi of Iran, to be eliminated from the Games. ! Res. ! Opponent ! Score ! Date ! Event ! Location ! Notes , - , Win , align=left, Bert Harris , style="font-size:88%", 3–0 , style="font-size:88%", 29 July , style="font-size:88%", 1948 Summer Olympics Men's Flyweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 2T , - , Win , align=left, Billy Jernigan , style="font-size:88%", 3–0 , style="font-size:88%", 30 July , style="font-size:88%", 1948 Summer Olympics Men's Flyweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 3 , - , Loss , align=left, Mansour Raeisi , style="font-size:88%", Tech. Fall; 5:31 , style="font-size:88%", 30 July , style="font-size:88%", 1948 Summer Olympics Men's Flyweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 6 (Eliminated) , -

Aftermath

For the next four years, Jadhav trained even harder for the Helsinki Olympics where he moved up in weight and participated in the 125 lb bantamweight category which saw wrestlers from twenty-four countries, he increased the tempo of his preparation for the next Olympics in Helsinki.

1952 Summer Olympics

After the marathon bout, he was asked to fight Soviet Union's Rashid Mammadbeyov. As per the rules a rest of at least 30 minutes were required between bouts, but no Indian official was available to press his case, a tired Jadhav, failed to inspire and Mammadbeyov cashed in on the chance to reach the final. Defeating the wrestlers from Canada, Mexico and Germany, he won bronze medal on 23 July 1952 thereby creating history by becoming Independent India's first individual medal winner. Khashaba's colleague, Krishnarao Mangave a wrestler, also participated in the same Olympics in another category but missed the bronze medal by just one point. ! Res. ! Opponent ! Score ! Date ! Event ! Location ! Notes , - , Win , align=left, Adrien Poliquin , style="font-size:88%", Tech. Fall; 14:25 , style="font-size:88%", 1952-07-20 , style="font-size:88%", 1952 Summer Olympics Men's Bantamweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 1T , - , Win , align=left, Leonardo Basurto , style="font-size:88%", Tech. Fall; 5:20 , style="font-size:88%", 1952-07-20 , style="font-size:88%", 1952 Summer Olympics Men's Bantamweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 1T , - , Win , align=left, Ferdinand Schmitz , style="font-size:88%", 2-1 , style="font-size:88%", 1952-07-20 , style="font-size:88%", 1952 Summer Olympics Men's Bantamweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 2T , - , Loss , align=left, Rashid Mammadbeyov , style="font-size:88%", 3-0 , style="font-size:88%", 1952-07-20 , style="font-size:88%", 1952 Summer Olympics Men's Bantamweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 1T , - , Loss , align=left, Shohachi Ishii , style="font-size:88%", 3-0 , style="font-size:88%", 1952-07-20 , style="font-size:88%", 1952 Summer Olympics Men's Bantamweight, Freestyle , style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;",

, style="text-align:left;font-size:88%;", Rank 3 Bronze Medal , -

Return from the 1952 Summer Olympics

Although India's hockey team bagged a gold at the Helsinki games, Jadhav was the primary attraction of India's contingent that returned home after the Olympics. Crowd gathered at the Karad Railway Station to welcome their hero, a cavalcade of 151 bullock carts and dhols, carried their hero for about 10 km and passed through the village of Goleshwar.

Later life and death

In 1955, he joined the police force as a sub-inspector where he won several competitions held within the Police department and also performed National duties as a sports instructor. Despite serving the police department for twenty-seven years and retiring as an Asst. Police Commissioner, Jadhav had to fight for pension later on in his life. For years, he was neglected by the sports federation and had to live the final stages of his life in poverty. He died in a road accident in 1984, his wife struggled to get any assistance from any quarter.

Awards and honours

* He was honoured by making him a part of the torch run at the

1982 Asian Games The 9th Asian Games (), also known as Delhi 1982 (), were held from 19 November to 4 December 1982, in Delhi, India. 74 Asian and Asian Games records were broken at the event. This was also the first Asiad to be held under the aegis of the Olymp ...

in Delhi * The Maharashtra Government awarded the Chhatrapati Puraskar posthumously in 1992–1993. * He was posthumously honoured with the

in 2000. * The newly built wrestling venue for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games was named after him to honour his achievement. * Pune-based writer Sanjay Dudhane's book on Jadhav's life, Olympicveer Khashaba Jadhav (2001). This is only one literature on K.D.Jdhav. * On 15 January 2023,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

honoured Jadhav with a

Google Doodle Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...

on his 97th birth anniversary.

* Sports in India *

India at the Olympics India first participated at the Olympic Games in 1900, becoming the first Asian nation to do so. Norman Pritchard represented the country and won two medals, both silver, in sport of athletics, athletics. The nation first sent a team to the Summer ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jadhav, Khashaba Dadasaheb 1926 births 1984 deaths Olympic wrestlers for India Wrestlers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Indian male sport wrestlers 20th-century Indian sportsmen Olympic bronze medalists for India Road incident deaths in India Sport wrestlers from Maharashtra Recipients of the Arjuna Award People from Karad Marathi people Olympic medalists in wrestling Marathi sportspeople Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics People from Satara district