Sakshi Malik – Olympics 2016 Medal Winner

About Sakshi Malik

Born on the 3^rd of September in 1992, Sakshi Malik is a prominent Indian freestyle wrestler, hailing from the town of Rohtak situated in the north Indian state of Haryana.

She rose to fame with back to back success at international levels, starting from the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Scotland, where she won a silver medal. This was followed by her winning the bronze medal at the Asian Wrestling Championship held in Doha in the year 2015.

The recent achievement that gave her the supreme limelight was her win at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she won the bronze medal in the 58 kg category of wrestling.

With this she set a record for herself, becoming the first Indian woman ever to win a medal at the Olympics. To date she is also the fourth woman Olympic medalist in the country of India.

She was born to a modest household in the Mokhra village in Rohtak district, wherein her father was a bus conductor and her mother, a supervisor at the health clinic of Anganwadi.

Her inspiration in the field of wrestling came from watching her grandfather Badhlu Ram, who was also a wrestler.

The people of her village were taken aback when she headed with her journey of continuing with a sport as intense as wrestling.

It was also during this that both Malik and her wrestling coach had to face a lot of criticism and opposition from the villagers since Malik was pursuing a sport, which was regarded as “not appropriate for girls.”

In the year 2010, she won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championships, and this was her first international acclaim ever as a professional female wrestler. Since then her dedication, skills, and passion have spoken volumes in the game and there was no looking back for her, as she managed to get back to back success.

As of 2016, she said she is engaged to Satyawart Kadian, who is also a professional international level wrestler, with achievements in the Commonwealth Games as well as the Asian Games.

Currently, she is also the wrestling director of Maharshi Dayanand University located in Rohtak, the same place from where she herself got her master’s degree in physical education.