Tokyo Olympics 2020: Sonam Malik gives new hopes to women's wrestling in India becomes contender for medal in Japan
What’s the story?
Sonam Malik is a strong contender for clinching an Olympic medal at the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In case you did not know
This 18-year-old Sonepat girl was born into a wrestling family. She decided to pursue wrestling at the age of 12 and trained hard under her coach Ajmer Malik. Malik was a recipient of the bronze medal at the 2017 Asian Cadets Championship in Bangkok. In the same year, she went on to win 2 gold medals at the World Cadet Championship.
However, soon after this she faced a major injury on her right shoulder that mostly paralyzed her right arm. This nevertheless did not deter her from dreaming big. In the next 6 months, she recovered well to be able to take up wrestling again.
Heart of the matter
Sonam Malik defeated the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik in a thrilling encounter, earlier this year at the national selection trials for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, which got her a seat in the Indian team.
Until then, Sonam had never competed at the senior level but her coach Ajmer Malik always knew that she has a great potential if there was an opportunity coming her way. Ajmer requested the wrestling federation of India to let Sonam participate and to everyone’s shock, Sonam went on to win the bout against Sakshi Malik
What’s next?
Sonam Malik is all set to feature her first major tournament, the Asian wrestling championships that kick starts from February 18. Sonam’s victory against Malik will take women’s wrestling to a great height.
Her game changed the mindset of the people of Sonepat who until now believed that wrestling was only a man’s sport. Now the women of Sonepat are expecting Sonam to clinch an Olympic medal for India's Olympics 2020 medal tally and bring glory to their city. She said,
“I saw Sushil Kumar, and saw Sakshi didi win in Rio. Since then I have been working hard because I want to win a medal at the Olympics.”