At the age of 15, Sushil's first big international medal came at home, in Delhi; he won the 1998 World Cadet championship.
"That was his first international medal and a gold at that! He retained his championship the next year, and there was no looking back. Very soon, he won the silver medal in the junior Asiad, and when he was just 17 years old, his coaches wanted him to appear in the senior category."
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Diwan Singh informs that they took Sushil to a championship in Europe. The organizers there said they couldn't allow such a young lad to wrestle with top wrestlers of the world. When the coaches persuaded them, they demanded a letter from the parents saying the organizers wouldn't, in anyway, be responsible if anything should happened to Sushil. His parents did not think for even a second before sending that letter.
"Medal toh nahi mila, par log dekhte hi reh gaye [he did not win a medal but people took note of him]," Diwan Singh remembered with pride.
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In 2003, Sushil won the Commonwealth gold and entered the World Championship as one of the men to beat.
"Semi-final mein ek Georgian ke saath lad raha tha [he fought a Georgian in the semi-final]. The refereeing was very bad and he lost the bout by a single point. Our officials protested in vain and he was placed fourth. With that placing, he became the world No 4, a ranking last achieved 50 years ago by a pehlwan [wrestler] named Rajinder. That also enabled him to qualify for the Sydney Olympics, where he crashed out in the first round," Diwan Singh said.
He then pointed to a photograph in a collage of Sushil in various positions of grapple. "That was it. The rest are all from matches he won. But this found a place because it was his first Olympic bout," he said.
Though he was disappointed with his early exit, he didn't lose heart. "He came back to the stadium and began practicing harder. The period between the two Olympics was also the toughest for the family in a sense.
"He reduced visiting us. It became once or twice a year for festivals like Diwali. Our correspondence was mainly through phone. And, even there, sometimes he would not answer our phone calls; even if he did he would mostly snap: ‘It is not my duty to answer your calls every time. It is to train and concentrate harder.' But we understood.
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