(As the trailer of Aamir Khan’s Dangal grips fans, The Quint decided to to republish this interview with the Rio Olympics bronze medalist Sakshi Malik. The interview was originally published on 18 August, 2016.)
The legendary Phogat family, the doyens of Indian wrestling.
Sakshi Malik grew up hearing of Mahavir Phogat and his daughters, who ruled Indian women’s wrestling. Later in life, she practised with a smile when allowed to train against Geeta didi, the eldest of the sisters and also the first Indian woman wrestler to qualify for an Olympics.
But in 2015, Sakshi managed to fight her way out of Geeta’s shadows and beat her in the Indian Olympic trials of the 58kg category. She was now the India number 1 and would go for all the qualifiers for Rio.
Only, she didn’t. Having failed in her first few tries, Sakshi was forced to cede her berth to Geeta didi for the Mongolia qualifiers. Call it her luck, but Geeta failed to make the most of the opportunity and Sakshi had one last chance to seal her Rio dream.
And she did, beating a former world champion to qualify for the Rio Games and keep her hopes alive of a medal in Rio.
On Wednesday night, Sakshi made that dream a reality. Not just winning herself a piece of history but also a million hearts with that smile of hers.
Watch our video as the ever smiling wrestler tells her Rio story, in her own words.
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