‘Haar nahi maanunga’: Sujeet Kalkal’s 2026 Asian Games Golden Mission en route to LA Olympics

The Asian Games is more than just another tournament for Sujeet. It is a new beginning for the wrestler from Haryana’s Bhiwani district. NEW DELHI: The last time Sujeet Kalkal came close to the Olympic dream, he never even got a chance to step on the mat.Now, as he prepares for his first Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, the 23-year-old wrestler looks to the continental event as the first major step on a new Olympic journey – one that he hopes will eventually take him to Los Angeles in 2028.“Asaan nahi tha, bhaisaab. Fir se kiya hai, haar nahi maanunga. Olympics do sapna hai, poora karna hai bass (It wasn’t easy. I started again and I won’t give up. Olympics is a dream and I have to fulfill it, that’s all),” Sujediaet.com told Times of Asian Games.There is a reason for that confidence. Sujeet enters Aichi-Nagoya after establishing himself as one of the top wrestlers in the 65kg category. He won the Asian Championships in Bishkek earlier this year and continued to build his credentials in 2026. He also won the 65kg selection trials for the Senior World Championships in Lucknow last week, defeating Anuj Kumar 8-3 in the final.However, the Asian Games will present a different test. Sujeet’s 65kg category features some of the biggest names in Asian wrestling, including Japan’s Olympic champion Kotaro Kiyook.Sujeet’s competition begins on October 2, when he will compete in the men’s 65kg, 86kg and 125kg categories.The Asian Games is more than just another tournament for Sujeet. It is a new beginning for the wrestler from Imlota village in Haryana’s Bhiwani district.“I was very happy to qualify (for the Asian Games). It’s a new start and I won’t disappoint. The hard work of my father, my coach and my entire team is behind this success. I’m in good shape. I’ll come back with a gold medal,” Sujeet said.“The 65 kg category is a very tough and competitive weight category. The world’s best wrestlers always compete in this category. But I fully believe in my hard work and preparation. My whole focus is only on the gold, brother. I have worked very hard,” he added.It will also be an opportunity to measure how far he has traveled since April 2024, when a three-day ordeal at Dubai International Airport ended his maiden Olympic campaign before it had even begun.

Three days at the airport in Dubai

It was April 2024. Sujeet was at Dubai International Airport waiting to continue his journey to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he was scheduled to participate in the Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament.However, record rainfall caused flooding in Dubai and severely disrupted air travel.Sujeet is stuck at the airport. He saw water everywhere and could only pray that the situation would improve so that he could travel to Bishkek where the qualifications were to be held.Sujeet could only watch the time, calculate the days and hours on his fingers and then sit down. His connecting flight was delayed and he ended up stranded at the airport for three days.Eventually a flight was arranged, but by the time it arrived in Kyrgyzstan and then the venue, it was an hour and a half after the weigh-in had been completed.The Indian Wrestling Federation and officials tried their best to find a way to get Sujeet in the competition. But United World Wrestling rules left them no choice.The opportunity was gone.“I felt very bad. I have no words. It was four years of hard work and everything ended in that one moment. I was in good shape and everything was in a moment. I also cried alone but I had faith in God. I explained things and came back to India,” said Sujeet.

His father’s words gave him strength

Sujeet returned to India devastated. His father Dayanand was waiting for him at home. Dayanand, a former Greco-Roman wrestler, knew what his son was going through.Sujeet immediately hugged his father. He was emotional and had his father’s shoulder to cry on.His father hugged him and told him: “No one son, we will work again, we will play the Olympics”.Those words stayed with Sujeet.‘I didn’t give up’Starting over wasn’t easy, but Sujeet was adamant. In early 2025, he won gold at the United World Wrestling Ranking Series in Budapest in the men’s 65 kg division. He added two more gold medals to his account in Zagreb and at the Tirana Grand Prix.He then won a gold medal at the Under-23 World Championship in 2025 in Novi Sad, Serbia, and another gold at the Asian Under-23 Championship in Vung Tau, Vietnam.He didn’t stop there.Sujeet became the Asian champion after winning gold in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. With the gold medal, he also rose to world number one.He is now preparing for his first Asian Games. A medal in Aichi-Nagoya would take him another step closer to his next big goal – the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.“I haven’t given up. I’ve worked very hard. I have a long way to go. If I had competed in Paris, I would have been 21. Now I’m 23. When the Los Angeles Olympics are coming up, I’ll be 25. There’s a big age difference. But I don’t want to back down. My mindset is still the same – to win a medal for the country,” he said.

“Haanikarak baapu”

For Sujeet, wrestling was never just a sport. His father Dayanand, a former national wrestling champion who also represented India in the World Cup, introduced him to the sport at a very young age. Sujeet was only five when he was pushed into the ‘akhaada’.Dayanand could not go to the Olympics to represent India. Now he wants his son to fulfill this unfulfilled dream.“Dad is very strict,” she says.“Wo dangal mein haanikarak baapu oni na, wo waise hi kuch hain (laughs). He told me, ‘Son, you have to become a wrestler. A wrestler’s son should be a wrestler.’ I have learned a lot from him since childhood. He is my guru as well as my father. Whatever I am today is because of him,” he said.“His dream is to see me in Olympics and see me win a medal. I will definitely fulfill this dream of my father,” Sujeet signed off.