India at Asian Games 2023 | Wrestler Antim Panghal: 'I feel like this year is my year'

Antim Panghal is the only Indian wrestler competing at both the world championships and the Asiad this year. (Image source: X/Media_SAI)

On September 20, after losing her semifinal bout at the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, at the last second, Antim Panghal was inconsolable. The 19-year-old had tasted her first defeat at the world championship level—she is the only Indian to win two U-20 World Championships, which she did in 2022 and again in July this year. At her debut at the senior world championship, she had done everything right on the way to the semifinal, pulling off one of the great wins of the tournament in the first round itself by defeating the defending world champion, USA’s Dominique Olivia Parrish, 3-2, then she decimated Poland’s Roksana Marta Zasina in the round of 16, and took down Russia’s Natalia Malysheva 9-6 in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Belarus’s Vanesa Kaladzinskaya reversed a move from Antim with a second remaining on the clock, and the Indian lost 5-4. She collapsed on the mat crying, and later, she sobbed and collapsed yet again in the tunnel leading to the dressing room.

Yet, the next day, the rookie wrestler found a new reserve and maturity in her. Nursing her emotional wound, Antim stepped on to the mat and transformed into the fierce competitor she is, using all her speed, power, agility, taking risks, trusting her defence once again, to beat Sweden’s Jonna Malmgren with a comprehensive 16-6 scoreline. Not only does that give her a maiden senior world championship medal—the sole medal for India—it also makes her the only Indian to book a quota for the Paris Olympics.

Five tournaments in six months. For each one she has had to cut weight. The body really begins to suffer if you have to put it through months of weight cutting... But she has done all of it. And she is wrestling brilliantly, with so much power and speed.

- Coach Vikas Bhardwaj

Antim is carrying Indian wrestling on her young shoulders at the moment. At a time when the country’s wrestling federation stands suspended, and the country’s best wrestlers returning to training only recently after months of protesting against the former federation chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh alleging a long history of sexual abuse, Antim has been a revelation as she made the difficult transition from junior to senior, winning a silver at her debut senior tournament, the Asian Wrestling Championship, in April and continuing on that rich vein of form ever since.

She is also the only Indian wrestler who is competing at both the world championships as well the Asiad, a feat of physical marvel—she only has five days at home between returning from Belgrade and going to Hangzhou, China, to start preparing for her event day, which falls on October 5.

“Antim has shown amazing willpower and strength,” said her coach Vikas Bhardwaj. “Since April, she has fought at the Asian championship, the U-20 world championship, the Asian Games trials, the world championship trials, and then the world championship itself. That’s five tournaments in six months. For each one she has had to cut weight. The body really begins to suffer if you have to put it through months of weight cutting. The muscles weaken, injuries start flaring up, and mentally it is like torture as well. But she has done all of it. And she is wrestling brilliantly, with so much power and speed.”

It has been a year of great learning for Antim, who, when she won the junior world championship in 2022, did not really understand how big an achievement it was.

“I had always had the childish dream that if I did well in wrestling, I would get to travel abroad, and then I will be happy,” Antim said. “So I went to the championship feeling very happy that the dream had come true, but I treated the tournament like any other tournament. I always like to win when I’m on the mat. I forget everything else—any nervousness, fear, thoughts of the opponent, all that leaves me. And so I won at the world championship and I was happy I won but I had no idea how big it would become back home. My sister called me to say that the entire village was coming to the airport to celebrate. I did not believe her. But when I landed, I saw that it was true, and then I realized that I must have done something good!”

From that innocence, she has now made a big leap to a place where she is constantly competing at the most elite level in the world, and constantly expecting to win, and managing her body and mind through a nearly impossible schedule.

“I feel like this year is my year, and now the Paris Olympics has become an obsession,” Antim said.

Before she heads to Paris, she will have to deal with the expectation of being one of the strongest Indian contenders for an Asian Games medal. This comes with its own baggage—wrestling has been India’s best sport at the Asian Games outside of Athletics, with 59 medals won across all editions, including the two gold medals and one bronze from the last Games in 2018.

In this edition, the Indian squad will feature wrestlers in all 18 categories, six in Greco-Roman, six in men’s freestyle and six in women’s freestyle, but the squad will arrive in Hangzhou more or less untested in the past nine months. Indian wrestling has had no national camps or national tournaments this year, since protests against Brij Bhushan began in January. Most members of the squad have simply trained by themselves, at their own training centres, with their local coaches. The preparation is far from ideal.

The leading fighter and defending Asian Games champion Bajrang Punia was one of the protest leaders and has lost pretty much an entire year in training and competition. He has had to cut close to 10kg in body weight, and find some semblance of fitness in a very short space of time to be ready for the Asian Games. He has not competed at all since the beginning of the year. How far can he hope to go in this condition? Most of India’s established wrestlers failed to make the cut for the Asian Games, leaving only two or three rookie wrestlers with realistic chances of a medal—Aman Sehrawat in 57kg freestyle who won India’s only gold at the Asian Championships in April, 2022 Junior World Championship silver medallist Sonam Malik in women’s 62kg, and 2022 Asian championship silver medallist Deepak Punia in men’s 62kg freestyle.

And then, of course, there is Antim Panghal.