The family of Khashaba Jadhav, who gave India its first Olympic medal in an individual sport in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics had to put his medal in an auction. The reason behind taking this step is to collect funds to build a wrestling academy in the honour of the Olympic medalist.
Khashaba Jadhav’s son, Ranjit Jadhav who currently lives in Satara district in western Maharashtra told PTI, “The decision to auction the bronze medal is a painful one but we are left with few options as the State government has reneged on its promise to build the academy. In 2009, at a wrestling event in Jalgaon, then State sports minister Dilip Deshmukh had announced that the government would set up a national-level wrestling academy, named after my late father, in Satara.”
Ranjit further told that though 1.58 crores were sanctioned in late 2013, the project has still not been able to take shape.”After eight years, nothing has materialised. In December 2013, Rs. 1.58 crore were sanctioned for the project. But the project has failed to take shape,” he added.
Rajit putting up a question on the sports administration in the country concluded, “My father was an introvert and never marketed his achievements. He was alive till 1984 but the government didn’t felicitate him with an Arjuna Award, which came his way 16 years after his death. Why can’t we honour accomplished people when they are alive?”