Rahul Rohilla is an Indian athlete who will take part in the 20km race walking event at the Tokyo Olympics. Hailing from Bahadurgarh, Haryana, Rahul took to race walking at the age of 17. The 24-year-old comes from a humble background and has witnessed financial crisis while growing up. His father worked as an electrician, and mother is a housewife. Owing to his parents’ illness, Rahul had stopped pursuing his dream of becoming a race walker for sometime. The expenses of his parents medicine was around 10000- 12000. He received 5 lakh donation from the UP government as an aid.
In February 2017, he got recruited in army in sports quota, and resumed his practice. He bore quite a lot of hardship and still managed to hone his potential.
He started practicing race walking with his cousin Ashish in 2013. Currently, his brother Ashish acts as his personal coach. Rahul has been a dedicated athlete throughout his career. During lockdown, he would practice in the Omaxe city’s Sector Dividing road. He used to set a 500 metres mark and walk up and down for 15 to 20 km everyday.
Rohilla started his journey in 2016 with 10km race walks but his sights were set on the Olympics and within a year he shifted to the 20km category in 2017.
Despite going a year without competing, Rohilla was able to improve his times from 1:21:59 to 1:20:26 and bag an Olympic berth. It has been his childhood dream to participate in the Olympics.
- Age – 25
- Sports/Discipline – Race walker
- Working Ranking – N/A
- First Olympic Games – Tokyo Olympics, 2021
Major Achievements
National Games
- Silver – 20km race walking, Junior National Competition, 2014 Vijaywada
- Silver – 20km Senior Walking Cup, 2019 Ranchi
Tokyo Olympics Qualification
Rahul secured his berth for the Tokyo Olympics 2021. He won the silver medal by walking 20km in 1 hour 20 minutes 26 seconds in the National Open Race Walking Competition.
He not only won the silver in this competition, but also got qualified for the Tokyo Olympics this February, 2021 through this win.
He is looking forward to his maiden Olympics game and feels determined to make India proud in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, 2021.
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