In the heart of Hisar, Haryana, a small village witnessed the birth of a future wrestling star, Antim Panghal, on 31 August, 2004.
Antim, which means ‘last’, was named so by her family in the hopes of her being their last daughter. While their wish came true, little did they know that Antim would soon become the youngest Indian wrestler at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Antim, a two-time junior world champion and world championships medallist, will take the centrestage on 7 June at the Paris 2024 Olympics in the 53kg event.
Born to Ram Niwas Panghal and Krishna Kumari, Antim grew up in a household that valued hard work and perseverance. Alongside her three older sisters and one younger brother, Antim’s journey into wrestling began at the tender age of 10, inspired by her eldest sister, Sarita, a national-level kabaddi player.
Recognising Antim’s potential, Sarita introduced her to wrestling, taking her to the Mahavir Stadium in Hisar for training. Despite initial reluctance, Ram Niwas was eventually convinced by Antim’s coach, Roshni Devi, to support his daughter’s passion. This support included relocating the family to ensure Antim had access to the best training facilities, a decision that would prove pivotal in her career.
Antim’s dedication and hard work quickly bore fruit. In 2018, she became the 49 kg U-15 national champion in Patna and brought home a bronze from the U-15 Asian Wrestling Championships in Japan the same year.
Her success continued with several cadet U-17 national titles. By 2020, Antim, then just 17, had already won a gold medal at the junior Asian Championships and a silver at the U-23 Asian Championships, defeating opponents much older than her.
However, it was in 2022 that Antim truly established herself in Indian wrestling as a force to be reckoned with.
During the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, Antim almost denied Vinesh Phogat a spot. Up against Vinesh Phogat in the finals, Antim took a 3-0 lead before Vinesh clawed back to tie the score and won the bout by criteria. Vinesh would later go on to win the women’s 53kg title in Birmingham.
Despite this setback, Antim quickly recovered, winning the women’s 53kg division at the 2022 Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series and bagging her first senior gold medal in July. The Indian wrestler defeated USA’s Dominique Parrish, who became the world champion in the category a couple of months later, en route to the title in Tunis.
A few months later, Antim would go on to win a historic gold medal at the U-20 World Wrestling Championships 2022 in Sofia, Bulgaria, becoming the first Indian to win the title in the competition’s history. A year later, she successfully defended her crown in Amman, becoming the only two-time junior world champion from India.
In April 2023, Antim won a silver medal at the Asian Championships in Astana. It took Japan’s Akari Fujinami, a true modern-day wrestling phenom who is yet to lose a senior bout in her career, to end Antim’s run in the final at Astana. Having missed out on the world championships in 2022 due to Vinesh Phogat’s presence, Antim finally made her debut at the global meet in 2023 and secured a bronze medal from Belgrade. Antim upset defending champion Parrish in the opening round but fell to Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus in the semis. She secured her bronze with a commanding win over Sweden’s Jonna Malmgren, a two-time European champion. Courtesy of this win, Antim also secured a Paris 2024 Olympic quota for India.
Despite winning the selection trials for the Asian Games 2023, it seemed like Antim would miss the bus to Hangzhou as the federation granted a direct entry to Vinesh Phogat for the women’s 53kg category at the continental meet.
However, a last-minute injury to Vinesh handed the youngster, who was a standby for Vinesh, a crack at a medal in Hangzhou. Antim didn’t disappoint and picked up a bronze medal. Following a loss to Fujinami in the quarters, Antim defeated Mongolia’s Bat-Ochiryn Bolortuyaa, a bronze medallist from Tokyo 2020, to secure a podium finish on her Asian Games debut.
In December 2023, Antim Panghal was named the women’s Rising Star of the Year by United World Wrestling (UWW), the world governing body of the sport. Looking ahead to Paris 2024, Panghal aims to follow in the footsteps of Sakshi Malik, India’s sole female Olympic wrestling medalist. “The country has placed its faith in me, and I want to live up to their expectations. Once I set my mind on something, I ensure it gets done,” she said.
(Edited by Padmashree Pande)
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