K. D. Jadhav
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav | ||||||||||||||
| Nickname(s) | Pocket Dynamo KD | ||||||||||||||
| Citizenship | British Indian (1925–1947) Indian (1947–1984) | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 15 January 1925 Satara, Satara district, Bombay Presidency, British India | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 14 August 1984 (aged 59) Karad, Maharashtra, India | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 54 kg (119 lb) | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Country | India | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wrestling | ||||||||||||||
| Event | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Rees Gardner | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav (15 January 1925 – 14 August 1984) was an Indian freestyle wrestler. He is best known for winning a bronze medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He was the first athlete from independent India to win an individual medal in the Olympics.
After Norman Pritchard who won two silver medals in athletics in 1900 under colonial India, Khashaba was the first individual athlete from independent India to win a medal at the Olympics. In the years before Khashaba, India would only win gold medals in field hockey, a team sport. He is the only Indian Olympic medalist who never received a Padma Award. Khashaba was extremely nimble on his feet, which made him different from other wrestlers of his time. English coach Rees Gardner saw this trait in him and trained him prior to the 1948 Olympic games. He belonged to Goleshwar village near Karad. He was posthumously awarded Arjuna Award in 2000 for his contribution to wrestling.