The Unsung Story of Gupteshwar Misra

India is a land of diverse lifestyle, culture, festivals and sports. It has a rich heritage of the sports activities, traces of those can be found in archaeological excavation of Harappa and Mohanjodaro and in epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. Wrestling is a very ancient sport of India that was basically done to stay healthy and fit.

There are instances of great wrestlers like Bhima, Jarasandha, Duryodhan and Karna. In modern India too there have been many Indian wrestlers who have made the country proud like Dara singh, Sushil Kumar, Geeta Phogat, Babita Phogat etc. There have been many sportspersons who dedicated their entire life for sports.

Gupteshwar Misra is also a wrestler who is known by very few of us. From 1938 to 1952 he has a brilliant career of wrestling. He used to be a coach from India. He had won Bengal State Wrestling Championship and the National Wrestling Championship twice in 1938 and 1940. In the 1967 “World Wrestling Championship” he was appointed as the chief coach where Bishamber Singh had won a silver medal. Gupteshwar Misra has worked to preserve the heritage of Indian wrestling. He was trained as a referee in Paris. He has helped in organising teams for railway, the BHU and the police. But in spite of great will-power his efforts could not be recognized as it deserved. 

Source: en.wikipedia.org

By: Anita Aishvarya