KARACHI: For all that he’s achieved in his storied career, Inam Butt doesn’t make any attempt to hide what Olympic glory would mean to him.

Having risen from the dusty ‘akharas’ of Gujranwala to become a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Pakistan’s star wrestler has never been to the Olympics.

There was heartbreak last time out for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, postponed by a year due to Covid-19, where Inam couldn’t qualify after training setbacks and a loss in the Asian qualifiers in Kazakhstan.

For that, he’d also moved up in the weight class to 97kg instead of the 86kg category in which he’d won the Commonwealth Games gold in 2018.

With the next Olympics in 2024, Inam’s immediate aim is to defend his Commonwealth crown in Birmingham next month. That, he believes, will be his first step towards making his Olympic bow at the Paris Games in two years.

“The first target is the Commonwealth Games,” Inam told Dawn in a telephone interview on Tuesday night. “Right now I’m just setting small targets. We have the Islamic Solidarity Games immediately after the Commonwealths. Then there are the world championships, the Asian and World Beach Games as well as the Asian Games next year.

“The Olympics come after that and good performances in the preceding events will set the tone for Paris. The ultimate aim is to win an Olympic gold. It’s a dream for any athlete and I’m no different.”

Inam is due to compete at the Commonwealth Games on Aug 5, when the preliminary rounds all the way to the final are scheduled. There is a short turnaround from that as the Pakistan contingent will head to the Turkish city of Konya for the Islamic Solidarity Games which are set to begin from Aug 9.

“It’s a challenge for us as the Islamic Solidarity Games are coming immediately after the Commonwealth Games,” Inam, who won his maiden Commonwealth Games gold in 2010, said. “We have to maintain our weight class for the Birmingham Games and then do the same for the Konya so there is no time to step back and relax.”

There have been better training arrangements for the twin events than for the Olympic qualifiers but Inam stressed that more needs to be done.

“With the pandemic raging, we were too slow in setting up a bio-secure bubble to continue with the training,” rued Inam as he looked back at missing out on the Olympics. “Other nations were quick in ensuring that training for the Olympics didn’t suffer but we couldn’t do anything.

“We were lagging behind and that’s what made Olympic qualification difficult for us. When we got to Kazakhstan, we’d missed several events and were naturally far behind.

“This time, the Pakistan Sports Board has organised a training camp for the last three months and the Pakistan Olympic Association as well as the Pakistan Wrestling Federation has been generously supporting us.

“We have an internationally qualified coach in Farid Ali training us. However, what we’re missing this time around — unlike the last Commonwealth Games — is international training and competitions.

“Last time, we trained in Iran for the Commonwealths where we had the opportunities to go up against wrestlers there. Just like any other sport, there is a lot of innovation in wrestling. There are new techniques that you get to learn in international competitions. But nonetheless, I and the other wrestlers are willing to give our best.”

The Commonwealth Games will also offer Inam — who won the World Beach Games gold in 2019 — a chance to test how far or how close he is to Olympic qualification.

“There are wrestlers from India who are recent Olympic medalists,” Inam informed. “There are also some good wrestlers from Canada, Nigeria, South Africa and Australia so it’s a good opportunity for me to see where I stand.”

While Pakistan has had several Commonwealth Games wrestling gold medallists, it has never produced an Olympic gold medallist in the discipline. Its solitary Olympic medal is a bronze won by Mohammad Bashir at the 1960 Games in Rome.

Inam, however, remains keen on changing that. He will be 35 by the time Paris Olympics come around but he says “age is just a number”.

“If I keep myself fit, I don’t see why I can’t have a crack at the 2028 Olympics [in Los Angeles],” he said. “All we [the wrestlers] need are good facilities and sparring partners.”

If he fails to deliver that elusive gold in his career, Inam vows he will work on producing an Olympic wrestling gold medallist from Pakistan.

“You have to realise that one day my time will be over,” he said. “That’s why I’ve set up an academy to train up-and-coming wrestlers. If I can’t do it myself, the aim is to raise someone who can deliver that gold.”

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2022