Nine years have gone by, but the quarter-final against Andy Fedchuk during the Sydney Olympics still hurts Gurcharan Singh as much today as it did then. Gurcharan and the Ukrainian were tied on points at the end of the bout, which he then lost on a countback: his loss of momentum during the gruelling last moments had disastrous repercussions — he missed out on what would’ve been India’s first-ever boxing medal, defected from the army to pursue pro-boxing in the USA and, most importantly perhaps, the country’s boxing revolution was delayed.

“I wish I could have won the medal. All that is happening today would’ve happened a decade ago,” Gurcharan, still emotional about the loss, tells The Sunday Express from New York. “Every game needs a role model and though I came really close, I failed to become one. It was always my dream to win an Olympic medal.”

Gurcharan presently takes part in the heavyweight category (four-round format) in the WBC and is expecting to advance to the ten-round format in the future.

He made a big impact early in his career, punching his way to 11 gold medals in the first 12 competitions he took part in. He was declared the best boxer during the Guama Cup in Cuba, a feat which no other Indian boxer has achieved after 1996. Soon after, an injury to his nose put Gurcharan out of the game for more than a year, but he came back as strong. However, things went horribly wrong after Sydney when, one year later, he defected from the army to pursue a career in the USA.

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