‘Medal toh mera hai,’ she had said. A smile on her face, the belief in her eyes. Unwavering. Uncompromising.
I had woken up at 4am on a Thursday morning to interview the three woman wrestlers who had qualified for the Rio Games. There was Vinesh Phogat, the youngest in the gang, but also the most promising medal prospect. Then there was Babita Phogat, Mahavir Phogat’s daughter and a regular feature in medal tallies at continental events. And also, a third contender. Sakshi Malik. A ‘challenger’ if I may. One who had risen through the ranks in the last year, beating Geeta, the eldest of the legendary Phogat sisters. The same Geeta who had been the first woman wrestler to ever represent India at the Olympics, in London.
To Sakshi, she was Geeta didi.
5:30 am and everyone had collected outside the Sports Authority of India hostel in Lucknow, ready for practise. The day was humid and the wrestlers were groggy.
All, but one.
That child in school who likes tests? The same one who wants to impress her teachers? Who wants to belong? That was Sakshi Malik.
When everyone ran around the tracks for the first warm-ups, it was her smile that got me. When everyone did the drills the coach demanded of them, that smile remained. When everyone fell to the floor, exhausted. That smile peeked at you from some corner.
There was something about Sakshi.
This one 23-year-old who had become the India number one after beating her idol Geeta didi. Geeta was, after all, the most accomplished of India’s women wrestlers, ever. Sakshi had grown up wanting to be just like her didi. To practise against her, to practise with her.
Only, in 2015, she managed to do all of that. But she stole a march over the Phogat sister.
As luck would have it, Sakshi and her idol were the same weight category and for Rio – it would be one or the other. The star or the fan? Sakshi went on to beat her elder opponent in the India trials and become the new India number 1. She would represent India in all the qualifiers for Rio.
She would be the woman who beat the eldest of Mahavir Phogat’s daughters.
A short basketball game to end the morning warm-ups and we were headed to the climbing rope. “Go touch the top bar,” said coach Kuldeep Yadav, pointing to the top of the over 30 foot high pole.
And Sakshi would. Callous on her hands forgotten, she would again and again reach the top and prove. Prove she belonged.
And that’s what it was about Sakshi that tugged at the believer in me. It wasn’t the wrestler trying to stay fit with almost inhumanly demanding drills or the student smiling her way through a hot sunny training session. It was the woman who knew she had something to prove. And this one, looked like she knew how to.
We sat down for an interview a few hours later. Instead of coming down to the common area, she said we could shoot in her room. A few pan shots of the small area that was her life, a few cutaways and I was ready with my questions.
5 minutes I’d told her it would take, but the moment I started rolling my iPhone, her smile lit up the conversation. So did the underlying sorrow in her statements.
“My mother didn’t want her daughter to be a wrestler. It’s just not what girls do back where I come from. But my grandfather introduced me to the sport and there wasn’t anything else I wanted to do with my life.”
Sakshi came up the ranks sparring with boys in akhadas and steady performances in the junior and senior level won her accolades and also the approval of her parents. The family had an achiever, Sakshi was going to be a wrestler.
“When I started wrestling I had heard of the legendary Phogat family. Little did I know I would compete against one of them one day. That too Geeta didi, the eldest of the sisters.”
“When we fought in the India trial, I beat Geeta didi. But after I didn’t make the cut in the first few Olympic qualifiers, they sent Geeta didi in my place for a tournament. She couldn’t make it so I eventually went and bagged the spot for India.”
Why the rightful owner of the qualifying spot wasn’t allowed to continue her campaign, wasn’t a question I asked her. Part of a three-member women’s wrestling team, of which two share the Phogat last night, I doubt Sakshi questioned the decision either. Loudly enough, at least.
Didn’t break. Became stronger. I guess.
It was when I came to my questions on her trip to Rio, that the special sparkle in Sakshi’s eyes returned.
The demons had been dealt with. Rio was a clean slate.
“People say three women wrestlers have qualified for Rio so at least two medals are assured. Vinesh says she will win one and me and Babita should decide between us who takes the other. But we are all working hard. It is about that particular day. If luck is with us on the day, no one can stop us from winning a medal.”
Luck was with her. And all of India.
On this day. And always.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)