Wrestler Nitesh Siwach brought laurels to the country by clinching a silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, on Thursday. His silver has also ended a 64-year wait for a medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Asian Games.Notably, wrestler Ganpat Andalkar had won a gold medal in the 97+ kg category while Malwa Singh won gold in the 52 kg category at the Asian Games in Jakarta in 1962.Posted with the Indian Railways, Nitesh belongs to Jagsi village in Gohana, Sonepat district, but his family lives in Sector 6, Panipat. His father, Anand Siwach, runs a milk business there. He buys milk from his village and sells it from his shop or door-to-door in Panipat.Born into a farmer family on October 21, 2002, Nitesh learnt the basics of wrestling from his father.Anand Siwach told The Tribune that Nitesh began practising at the age of 5-6 at a village akhara and spent 2-3 years there. After that, he was admitted to the wrestling academy at Pratap School in Kharkhoda, where he continued training regularly, he added.Nitesh suffered a knee injury while training at the academy in Kharkhoda and had to quit. He underwent surgery for the injury and it took him around two years to recover from the trauma.During his injury layoff, Nitesh stayed at home and helped his father deliver milk, Anand said.“After some time, he came to me and said he wanted to take up wrestling again. As I was also a wrestler and wanted to make him one, I immediately asked him to rejoin his team,” Anand said.“We have a joint family and two sons of my younger brother — Sushil and Ansh — also began practising wrestling three years ago,” he added. Aiming for the Olympics, Nitesh has been practising very hard and we hope he will win a medal at the Olympics too, Anand said.“Although we were hoping for a gold medal, we are happy with the silver. His win has made not only us but the entire country proud,” said Anand. Family members distributed ladoos to celebrate his victory.Excited about the silver medal win, Gunvanti, Nitesh’s mother, said it was a proud moment for the entire family as Nitesh had brought laurels to the village, state and country at the international level.He is fond of eating ‘choorma’ and prefers only home-cooked food. Whenever he comes home, choorma is prepared for him.In 2019, Nitesh won a silver medal at the Cadet Asian Championships and a bronze at the U23 World Championships three years later. In 2025, he bagged a bronze at the Senior Asian Championships and improved it to silver earlier this year.