The Google Doodle on January 15 marked Indian wrestler Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav’s 97th birthday. Jadhav, popularly known as "pocket dynamo", is remembered as the first athlete of independent India to win an individual Olympic medal.
He was born in Maharashtra's Goleshwar village in 1926. Jadhav's father was a wrestler too and passed on his athleticism to his son.
As a young boy, Jadhav excelled in swimming. When he turned 10, his father began coaching him to be a wrestler.
Soon, he progressed to become one his school's best wrestlers. He was also trained by professional wrestlers, going on to win state and national-level competitions.
The next milestone in his life was the 1948 London Olympics. He finished sixth, despite not being used to international wrestling rules and formats.
Disappointed, he spent the next four years practicing even harder. He moved up to the bantamweight weight division (between 52 and 57 kilograms) and set his eyes on the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
There, he succeeded in defeating wrestlers from Canada, Mexico and Germany but finished behind Japan and the Soviet Union.
It was still a history making moment -- the first time an athlete from independent India scored an individual Olympic medal.
He could not participate in the next Olympic games because of a knee injury, which effectively ended his wrestling journey.
Jadhav then joined the Maharashtra Police as a sub-inspector. He served the force for 27 years, retiring as an assistant police commissioner.
The star athlete struggled to get his pension and was reportedly neglected by the sports federation. His last years were spent in poverty.
He died in an accident in 1984.
Jadhav was honoured with the Maharashtra government's Chhatrapati Puraskar award in 1993 and the Arjuna Award -- India's second-highest sporting honour -- in 2000.
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