This Saturday evening when most of India was watching IPL’s opening ceremony, Sathish Sivalingam created history by winning a Gold medal in the 77 kg weight category at the 2018 Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast, Australia, taking India’s gold medal count to three. Sathish is the fifth Indian weightlifter who won a medal at weightlifting.
Sathish had also won Gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the same weight category, with the 149 kg snatch and 179 kg clean and jerks lifts, totalling an entire of 328 kg, his lift of 149kg in snatch continues to be the game’s record. At Gold Coast, he had combined total of 317 kg (144kg+ 173kg). It was indeed a proud moment for India, and we should keep encouraging more youngsters to follow their dreams.
Sathish is a native of the Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. In his early days of weightlifting Sathish was trained by his father Sivalingam, he is a former weightlifter who won Gold medals at national levels. It’s really a victory for Sathish and his father who trained him to win accolades all over. According to reports, Sathish was not confident with this game as he had an injury in his thighs and he stated in one of his statements that he had no hopes of winning a medal this time around, but despite immense pain he performed magnificently and made India proud by winning a gold medal and accomplishing his dream. Sathish is looking forward and expects more from himself in Asian Games in Indonesia this year.
India is performing phenomenally these days in various sports like weightlifting, badminton, gymnastics, etc. but still most of our attention is only focused on cricketers. Moreover in India cricket has become more of just a successful business venture which only makes the game lose its essence. So we should stop overhyping cricket and give equal importance to different sports and recognise and respect the talent of athletes like Sathish and encourage more youngsters to become like him.