She has beaten Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik twice last year. She hasn’t even crossed her teenage years but she has already crossed the boundary of national recognition to gather international success in such a physical sport like wrestling. India will have high hopes from the 19 years old girl from Sonipat, Hariyana: Sonam Malik.
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| SONAM MALIK |
Struggle Made Her Tougher:
Sonam’s father Raj Malik works at a sugar mill as a delivery man. As the family’s financial state is not much stable, Sonam has been struggling throughout, since her childhood. The struggle strengthens her mentality. Father Raj and her cousin also wrestle and that inspired her to pick up the sport. She started to train just at the age of 11, under Ajmer Malik at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Sports complex in the village. The academy lacks so much in facilities that they don’t even have any mat. Players are even forced to practice on roads when on rainy days practicing ground turns muddy. But nothing could stop Sonam.
Achievements Paved Her Path for Something Big:
Her first crack came when she won gold medal in National School Games in 2016 and then won silver medal in Cadet National Championship in 2017. She tasted her first international success in the very same year as she clinched gold in World School Games. 2017 earned her a bronze medal in Cadet Asian Wrestling Championships and another gold medal in Cadet World Wrestling Championships.
Injury Gave Her Reality-check:
But just when the year looked to be pitch-perfect for her, she picked up a severe shoulder injury in a tournament. But even her almost-paralyzed shoulder couldn’t bend her down. “During that painful phase I used to motivate her all the time saying that injury is a part of sport. So do not become frustrated. Sonam, in reply, asked me not to worry. She always said that she would make a strong comeback.” Ajmer said later. It took almost a year for her to make a proper comeback.
Learnt How to Bounce Back:
She marked her comeback with a pair of bronze medals in Cadet Asian Wrestling Championships and in Cadet World Wrestling Championship in 2018. And in 2019, she turned the bronze to gold in Cadet World Wrestling Championships, achieving a rare feat of winning the title twice.
Throughout all these she also kept on competing in Akhada tournaments winning hefty amount of prizes. She loved competing against big boys with absolute no fear. “It was more fun beating those sturdy boys. To wrestle against girls was also good but competing against boys was always a good test for me.” Reminding the movie Dangal? Naturally!
Stage ‘Something Big’: The Olympics
She shot into limelight when she defeated Olympic bronze-medalist Sakshi Malik, not once but twice, in the single year of 2020. She won Olympic quota in 62kg freestyle category by qualifying in the final of Asian Olympic Qualifier, though she had to withdraw from the final for a knee injury. Quite fascinating is that, she was trailing by 0-6 in the semifinal and then she picked 9 consecutive points to win the bout by 9-6. And now she doesn’t even have to think about her funding on her own as she is sponsored by Olympic Gold Quest (WGQ).
As all other athletes, Olympic medal has always her biggest dream. As she once said, “I have started setting focus on a medal in 2024 Olympics. I must not be complacent.”
Though she is flying to her dream competition stage even one edition earlier than she dreamt of, she looks fully ready to bring home glory, as we can expect given her hardworking and never-give-up mentality as her coach states about his pupil, “She had begun wrestling under my training five years ago. Since then I have never seen her getting self-satisfied. Even after a hectic seven-hour training including morning and evening session, Sonam asked me to rectify her mistakes.”
The whole team of KheLoVerse wishes Sonam Malik all the good luck for the Tokyo Olympics and days after.
An Article By: Arpan Purkait
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