On a sunny August day in London, eight years back, Sushil Kumar stood outside the ExCel Center with his close family and support staff, and a bunch of Indian journalists. Looking just a tad tired, Sushil, however, could not hide his joy and relief. Because what he was wearing around his neck was not just a silver medal but a mark of excellence that would make him immortal in the history of Indian sport.

To put things in perspective, India, a country of nearly 1.3 billion people have only 15 individual Olympic medals to boast of since Independence. And two of them belong to this wrestler from Delhi. Sushil is the only Indian till date to have won back-to-back Olympic medals in any individual sport.

When Sushil won the silver in men's 66kg freestyle, losing the final to Japan's Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu 1-3 on August 12, 2012, he also improved on the bronze medal he had won in Beijing in 2008. In the bronze medal playoff in Beijing, he had edged out the Kazakh Leonid Spiridonov 3-2 to claim India's first Olympic wrestling medal since Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav in 1952.

In London, then 29 years old, Sushil had to live up to a promise he had made.

After showing tremendous form in his early morning bouts, Sushil looked a little tired in the final. And the way his opponent picked him up and threw him on the mat signalled the outcome.

Coach Raj Singh had later said that Sushil was indisposed after the semi-final, and had to take frequent toilet breaks. He had vomited a few times, too. But the grappler himself had played it down. "I had promised that I would change the colour of the medal. Am happy I could do that," he had said after the bout. "I had a stomach infection, but difficulty and pain are part of the sport."

What had taken a toll was playing from the first round to the final on the same day.

Sushil had assured India of a sixth medal in London - the best show by the country in Olympics - by powering into the final, defeating Kazakhstan's Akzhurek Tanatarov 3-1 in a thrilling semi-final, his third fight of the day. On way to the semi-final he had defeated Ikhtiyor Navruzov of Uzbekistan 3-1. He had started the day in a scintillating fashion, dismissing the Beijing gold medallist, Ramazan Sahin of Turkey, in the opening round.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Sushil said: "I am still looking to make it to Tokyo and hopefully add another medal. With the pandemic situation, right now the priority is to stay safe. Once things settle down, I will again start my preparations and hope to bring more laurels to the country."

Asked how he felt about being the only Indian to have won back-to-back Olympic medals, he humbly said: "It feels great. I feel I am blessed."