Milkman's son dreams of Asian Games glory: Wrestler Nitesh Siwach's story

Nitesh Siwach heads into his first Asian Games with his father's medal charge ringing in his ears. Nitesh is looking to deliver on his promise and claim a medal in what is his second innings in the sport.

In Short

• Nitesh switched from kabaddi to wrestling to fulfill father's dream
• The 23-year-old was out of the sport and worked as a milkman
• Nitesh is aiming for the gold medal at the Asian Games

When the Asian Games trials came around, Nitesh Siwach's father travelled to watch his son wrestle in person. After all the years of struggle, there was little he needed to say. Just one line, a line Nitesh has carried with him ever since.

"My father told me, now there is no looking back, you have to bring a medal at the Asian Games, and after that, at the Olympics and the World Championships too. Then he said, ‘this is a very good beginning for you’. That line has stayed with me since that day," Nitesh recalls.

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For a 23-year-old preparing for his first Asian Games, those words carry the weight of a journey that began long before the trials, before the medals and even before wrestling became his calling. It is a journey of a father's dream, a son's second chance and a promise that has slowly taken shape on the mat.

A DREAM THAT BEGAN WITH KABADDI

Nitesh's entry into wrestling was almost accidental. Back in 2012, he had gone to Pratap School with one intention: to play kabaddi, the sport he loved at the time. But there was wrestling at the school too, and his father had always wanted to see his son become a pehelwan.

That dream changed the course of Nitesh's life.

"I started wrestling in 2012. See, my father always had this dream that I should become a wrestler. I used to play kabaddi, and I had actually gone to Pratap School to play kabaddi, but we had wrestling there too. Because it was my father's dream, I got into wrestling instead," he says.

For the next two years, Nitesh trained and began finding his feet in the sport. Then came a knee operation, forcing him away from wrestling.

The break stretched into nearly two years.

With his wrestling future suddenly uncertain, Nitesh began helping his father, who worked as a milkman. The wrestling mat was replaced by milk deliveries and the daily grind of helping his family make ends meet.

For a while, it seemed his wrestling journey might have ended before it had truly begun.

But the thought of returning never completely disappeared.

As he spent more time helping his father with his milk rounds, Nitesh began wondering what he could achieve if those hours were spent training instead. Eventually, he went to his parents with a simple request: give him six months.

"I went to my mother and father, to my whole family actually, and I asked them, just give me six months, let me try wrestling again," he says.

They said yes.

Nitesh made the most of that second chance, winning a medal at the School Nationals within that six-month window. It may have been only one medal, but for Nitesh, it was the moment his story changed direction.

FROM SECOND CHANCE TO ASIAN GAMES

That second beginning has since turned into a steady climb.

Nitesh has established himself at the senior level, winning bronze at the Asian Championships in 2025 before improving that result to silver in 2026. The progression has now taken him to the biggest opportunity of his young career: his first Asian Games.

In the build-up, a three-week training camp in Uzbekistan provided another important step forward. Against quality international opposition, Nitesh worked specifically on the area he felt needed the most attention: his ground wrestling.

"The camp in Uzbekistan was great exposure for us, it has given us a lot of confidence that we can perform well at the Asian Games. I specifically worked on my ground wrestling during this camp, and I feel I have become stronger in that area now," he says.

The medals have come, the experience has grown and the confidence has followed. But with the Asian Games now within touching distance, another challenge has emerged: managing the expectations that come with it.

Nitesh has spent the last three to four years building towards this moment. He also knows the history attached to his weight category: no wrestler from his division has previously won an Asian Games medal.

That statistic is both an opportunity and a burden.

"There is pressure because people say, you can win a medal. And there is another pressure on top of that, that nobody in my weight category has done well at the Games before. So somewhere in my mind, I keep thinking, I have to give my hundred percent. But honestly, this kind of pressure can also pull you back a lot. I have waited four years for this, and if I take too much pressure, my performance will drop," he admits.*

For Nitesh, the answer is not to pretend the pressure does not exist, but to keep it in perspective.

His coaches and parents remind him that sport is never a straight line. There are good phases, difficult ones and periods when a wrestler's game simply dips before rising again.

Nitesh also has a more personal way of dealing with setbacks. He watches himself.

When things go wrong, he goes back to recordings of his own bouts, looking for the smallest details that might reveal where he is losing ground.

"When things are not going well for me, I sit and watch my own videos, to see where I am weak, where I am lacking, where I am making mistakes. I watch every video of my training very carefully and try to fix every small thing I can. I also talk to my coaches, I talk to my parents, and they tell me, don't worry, every two or three months your game changes, sometimes you go down, sometimes you come back up again," he says.

SUPPORT BEHIND THE WRESTLER

There have been plenty of difficult turns along the way: the injury, the long absence from wrestling and the uncertainty over whether he would return.

Through it all, Nitesh says the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) has remained a constant source of support, taking care of everything from travel and training to nutrition and physiotherapy.

"I am really, really thankful to IIS, whatever I have needed, they have made sure it is taken care of. Whether it is traveling for my training and competitions, my nutrition, physiotherapy, anything at all, they have always supported me and given me everything I have needed," he says.

Now, after everything that came before, the Asian Games are finally here.

For Nitesh, this is more than another tournament. It is the latest chapter in a story that began when a young boy walked into a school hoping to play kabaddi, spent years away from the mat, helped his father deliver milk and then fought his way back into wrestling.

His father once asked him to dream bigger: first the Asian Games, then the Olympics and World Championships.

Now, with his first Asian Games just ahead, Nitesh has only one request for the people who stood by him through it all.

"Please pray for me, I will bring a gold medal home for them. Mein apne desh ka Tiranga lehraunga, aur Rashtragaan bajaunga (I will make our nation's tri-colour fly high and make sure our national anthem plays.)," he says.

- Ends