Paris Olympics 2024: At simply 19, Antim Panghal, a two-time U-20 world champion and medalist on the Asian Video games and senior world championships, shines because the youngest Indian wrestler on the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Within the coronary heart of Hisar, Haryana, a small village witnessed the start of a future wrestling star, Antim Panghal, on 31 August, 2004.
Antim, which suggests ‘final’, was named so by her household within the hopes of her being their final daughter. Whereas their want got here true, little did they know that Antim would quickly turn into the youngest Indian wrestler on the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Antim, a two-time junior world champion and world championships medallist, will take the centrestage on 7 June on the Paris 2024 Olympics within the 53kg occasion.
Born to Ram Niwas Panghal and Krishna Kumari, Antim grew up in a family that valued arduous work and perseverance. Alongside her three older sisters and one youthful brother, Antim’s journey into wrestling started on the tender age of 10, impressed by her eldest sister, Sarita, a national-level kabaddi participant.
Recognising Antim’s potential, Sarita launched her to wrestling, taking her to the Mahavir Stadium in Hisar for coaching. Regardless of preliminary reluctance, Ram Niwas was ultimately satisfied by Antim’s coach, Roshni Devi, to help his daughter’s ardour. This help included relocating the household to make sure Antim had entry to the very best coaching amenities, a choice that will show pivotal in her profession.
Antim’s dedication and arduous work shortly bore fruit. In 2018, she grew to become the 49 kg U-15 nationwide champion in Patna and introduced dwelling a bronze from the U-15 Asian Wrestling Championships in Japan the identical 12 months.
Her success continued with a number of cadet U-17 nationwide titles. By 2020, Antim, then simply 17, had already gained a gold medal on the junior Asian Championships and a silver on the U-23 Asian Championships, defeating opponents a lot older than her.
Nevertheless, it was in 2022 that Antim actually established herself in Indian wrestling as a pressure to be reckoned with.
Throughout the choice trials for the Commonwealth Video games 2022 in Birmingham, Antim nearly denied Vinesh Phogat a spot. Up towards Vinesh Phogat within the finals, Antim took a 3-0 lead earlier than Vinesh clawed again to tie the rating and gained the bout by standards. Vinesh would later go on to win the ladies’s 53kg title in Birmingham.
Regardless of this setback, Antim shortly recovered, successful the ladies’s 53kg division on the 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier Rating Collection and bagging her first senior gold medal in July. The Indian wrestler defeated USA’s Dominique Parrish, who grew to become the world champion within the class a few months later, en path to the title in Tunis.
A number of months later, Antim would go on to win a historic gold medal on the U-20 World Wrestling Championships 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria, changing into the primary Indian to win the title within the competitors’s historical past. A 12 months later, she efficiently defended her crown in Amman, changing into the one two-time junior world champion from India.
In April 2023, Antim gained a silver medal on the Asian Championships in Astana. It took Japan’s Akari Fujinami, a real modern-day wrestling phenom who’s but to lose a senior bout in her profession, to finish Antim’s run within the ultimate at Astana. Having missed out on the world championships in 2022 on account of Vinesh Phogat’s presence, Antim lastly made her debut on the world meet in 2023 and secured a bronze medal from Belgrade. Antim upset defending champion Parrish within the opening spherical however fell to Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus within the semis. She secured her bronze with a commanding win over Sweden’s Jonna Malmgren, a two-time European champion. Courtesy of this win, Antim additionally secured a Paris 2024 Olympic quota for India.
Regardless of successful the choice trials for the Asian Video games 2023, it appeared like Antim would miss the bus to Hangzhou because the federation granted a direct entry to Vinesh Phogat for the ladies’s 53kg class on the continental meet.
Nevertheless, a last-minute harm to Vinesh handed the teenager, who was a standby for Vinesh, a crack at a medal in Hangzhou. Antim didn’t disappoint and picked up a bronze medal. Following a loss to Fujinami within the quarters, Antim defeated Mongolia’s Bat-Ochiryn Bolortuyaa, a bronze medallist from Tokyo 2020, to safe a podium end on her Asian Video games debut.
In December 2023, Antim Panghal was named the ladies’s Rising Star of the 12 months by United World Wrestling (UWW), the world governing physique of the game. Looking forward to Paris 2024, Panghal goals to observe within the footsteps of Sakshi Malik, India’s sole feminine Olympic wrestling medalist. “The nation has positioned its religion in me, and I need to reside as much as their expectations. As soon as I set my thoughts on one thing, I guarantee it will get performed,” she mentioned.
(Edited by Padmashree Pande)
Sources:
Who’s Antim Panghal? Know India’s wrestling sensation: by Olympics.com, Revealed on 18 December 2023.
Antim Panghal Biography, Data, Medals and Age: by Olympics.com.
Antim Panghal at Paris 2024 Olympics: Get Girls’s 53 Kg Wrestling Schedule, Match Instances: by Olympics.com, Revealed on 5 August 2024.
“The nation has positioned its religion in me”: Antim Panghal eyes medal at Paris 2024 Olympics in 53 kg class wrestling: by Moneycontrol, Revealed on 10 July 2024.
