“If Indian wrestlers win medals at Asian Games this year, the credit would be theirs entirely, and not the system,” Gian Singh, Wrestling Federation of India’s ad-hoc committee official, told Newslaundry. “They have been left to fend for themselves,” he said, pointing to the suspension of the Sports Authority of India’s national camps for wrestlers this year.
“We are unsure of wrestlers’ performance at the Asian Games because we do not know how their preparation went,” said Ashok Garg, one of the five members of the ad-hoc committee formed by the Indian Olympic Association in April this year to oversee the affairs of the Wrestling Federation of India. Since January, the WFI has been marred in controversy over the wrestlers’ protests on allegations of sexual harassment against its former chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
