Vikas Krishan Yadav is an Indian amateur boxer from Haryana who has competed internationally in the welterweight and middleweight divisions. He has represented India at the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Championships, and is a former Asian and Commonwealth champion. He is widely known by the short form Vikas Krishan.
| Full name | Vikas Krishan Yadav |
|---|---|
| Born | 10 February 1992 |
| Place of birth | Singhwa Khas, Hisar district, Haryana, India |
| Sport | Boxing (amateur) |
| Weight categories | Lightweight (60 kg), Welterweight (69 kg), Middleweight (75 kg) |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| National team | India |
| Olympic appearances | 2012 London, 2016 Rio de Janeiro, 2020 Tokyo |
Vikas was born in the village of Singhwa Khas in Hisar district, Haryana. He took up boxing as a teenager and trained at the Bhiwani Boxing Club, the academy associated with coach Jagdish Singh that has produced several Indian Olympic boxers. He later trained at national camps run by the Boxing Federation of India and the Sports Authority of India in Patiala.
Vikas first came to prominence at the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in Baku in 2010, where he won a gold medal in the lightweight (60 kg) category. The same year he won a bronze medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou.
At the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Baku in 2011, Vikas won a bronze medal in the lightweight category, becoming one of the few Indian male boxers to medal at the senior worlds.
Vikas qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 69 kg welterweight division. He won his opening bout against Errol Spence of the United States, but the result was reversed after a protest by the American team, ending his campaign.
He won the gold medal at the AIBA Asian Boxing Championships in 2011 (lightweight) and again in 2017 (middleweight, 75 kg). At the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, he won the gold medal in the 75 kg category. He had earlier won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Vikas competed in the middleweight division and reached the quarter-finals. At the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, he won a bronze medal in the welterweight category.
At the AIBA World Boxing Championships in 2019 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Vikas won a bronze medal in the welterweight (69 kg) category, his second medal at the senior World Championships.
Vikas qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo in 2021, becoming one of the few Indian boxers to compete at three Olympic Games. He had earlier signed with a US-based professional promoter and made a brief foray into professional boxing while retaining amateur status under modified AIBA rules.
Vikas Krishan is considered one of the most consistent Indian male boxers of his generation, having medalled across all major multi-sport events open to amateur boxers from Asia and the Commonwealth. His career, alongside that of contemporaries such as Vijender Singh and Manoj Kumar, helped sustain the visibility of Indian men's boxing after the breakthrough at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His progression across three weight categories — from 60 kg to 75 kg — is also unusual among Indian boxers at the elite level.