Switching off their television set, Sushil Kumar’s wrestling buddies at Satpal’s akhada in Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi didn’t waste a minute to begin the frenzied celebrations. Their sport wasn’t even mentioned among the medal prospects in the run-up to Beijing, but along came this man, seemingly out of nowhere, to break India’s one-medal jinx at the Olympics.

The celebrations will continue for a while, but a peek into the everyday lives of the country’s second medallist at the Games shows he had to battle a lot more than his opponents in Beijing. Squeezed into tiny rooms at the stadium’s residential facility, with rats, cockroaches and cobwebs for company, the conditions are not really conducive to breed a champion. But for these men, it’s just a way of life.

The disbelief grows as one enters the dingy room. It looks dark despite the light outside, and with barely any space to walk between the beds, the room gives the impression of being much smaller than it is. The shelf at the back has a number of trunks thrown together, taking up precious space, but it’s all they have to spare for their belongings.

Sumit, one of the wrestlers who bunks in the same room as Sushil, proudly points out his now famous colleague’s mattress among nine others in the small room. “See, this is where he sleeps. In the summer he sleeps this side, but in winter he moves to the other mattress. We have to manage with just these two coolers, so he moves to be more comfortable,” he says.

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