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India will be sending six wrestlers to the Paris Olympics, including Vinesh Phogat. Here’s a look at how they secured their quotas and who can win a medal for the country. read more
 "Who has qualified for Olympics and how? Can India win a medal?")
Vinesh Phogat will be the most experienced wrestler from India in Paris Olympics. PTI
Wrestling has resulted in 20 per cent of the total medals India have won at the Summer Olympic Games so far, with seven medals out of 35. Wrestler KD Jadhav won independent India’s first individual medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games and grappler Sushil Kumar became the first from the country to win two individual Olympic medals post-independence with his silver at the 2012 London Games. India clinched two medals in wrestling in the last Games at Tokyo in 2021 and have been winning medals in the sport since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Paris Olympics Complete Coverage: Click here for news, schedule, explainers and more
Naturally, the nation expects the grapplers to return with at least one medal once again. However, the makeup of the 2024 wrestling contingent from India is very different from what we have seen before. Apart from Sakshi Malik, all medals in wrestling have been won by male wrestlers. The current contingent, however, includes only one male wrestler – Aman Sehrawat (57 kg).
Read: Vinesh, women wrestlers save India the blushes but only one men’s quota a sucker punch
Unlike previous Games, the six-member contingent is dominated by five female wrestlers including former Asian champions Vinesh Phogat (50 kg) and young sensation Antim Panghal (53). Other members of the wrestling team are Anshu Malik (57 kg), Nisha Dahiya (68 kg), and Reetika Hooda (76 kg).
This will be the first time India will be sending five women wrestlers to an Olympics. Four women wrestlers were part of the Tokyo Games.
How did they qualify for the Paris Games?
Antim was the first to earn a quota for India with a bronze at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships. Vinesh, Anshu, and Reetika won Olympic quotas by winning their semi-final bouts at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in April this year.
Nisha and Aman clinched the quotas at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in May.
The Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) decision not to hold trials opened the doors for the quota winners to directly take part in the Olympics 2024.
Who are the top medal contenders?
Antim: Former world junior champion, Antim, has been seeded fourth in her field and will not be facing Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Qianyu Pang, two-time world champion Akari Fujinami, or two-time European champion Emma Malmgren in the earlier rounds. With Asian Games bronze and Asian Championships silver medal wins, Antim has given a good account of herself and must aim to make full use of the advantage her seeding has provided her.
Aman: The only other Indian wrestler to be seeded for Paris 2024 is Aman. He won the Under-23 World Championships in 2022 and the Asian Championships gold in 2023.
Having won gold at the Zagreb Open Ranking Series tournament and silver at the Budapest Ranking Series in 2024, Aman is in good form. However, things will get tough for him from the quarter-finals stage where he is expected to meet three-time World Championships bronze medallist, Arsen Harutyunyan of Armenia. If he reaches semis, he could be up against Japan’s Rei Higuchi who is a former world champion.
Aman’s first Summer Games will be nothing less than a baptism by fire.
Vinesh: With Antim qualifying in her pet category, the trailblazer wrestler, who spearheaded the protests against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, has been forced to come down to a 50 kg event. This category includes some of the best wrestlers – four-time Olympic medallist Mariya Stadnik, Tokyo bronze medallist Sarah Hildebrandt, four-time world champion Yui Susaki, and two-time World’s silver medallist Dolgorjavyn Otgonjargal.
Vinesh is not seeded and hence will only get to know her first opponent on the eve of the competition.
Anshu, Nisha, and Reetika are also unseeded and will learn their paths to the medals on the eve of their respective competitions.
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