She became only the second Indian shuttler – first being Saina Nehwal – to make it to the Olympics last-4.
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“Sakshi Malik will inspire several sportspersons in the years to come”, he said in an another tweet.
Finally, the long wait of more than one billion Indians has come to an end. The Indian wrestler then beat Orkhon Purevdorj of Mongolia 12-3 in the repechage round to progress to the bronze medal playoff. In a country where women are still seen through patriarchal frames and are deemed to need the protection of men, a woman athlete from Haryana won the Olympic bronze medal in a sport that many in India still view as the height of masculinity.
The 23-year-old grappler, however, made amends in the second period as she managed to pull two points back.
Nearly a month back, when the Olympic athletes from India hadn’t reached Rio and were training hard for it, The Quint shot a video with the three women wrestlers-Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Babita Kumari.
At Rio 2016, it’s India’s female athletes that are dominating headlines.
Weight-lifter Karnam Malleshwari was the first Indian to win an Olympic medal for India when she won a bronze at the 2000 Sydney Games. In fact, Sakshi’s winning move that got her two points initially was challenged by her Kyrgyztan rival and it was reviewed and she was awarded an extra point by the judges much to her rival’s chagrin. “She has done the country and us proud”, a visibly happy Sudesh Malik, Sakshi’s mother said.
In the dying moments, the score was 5-5, the bronze was within reach of Tynybekova as she had pulled off the higher scoring manoeuvre for the match. “My hard work has succeeded”, Sakshi said. As a result of this, Haryana has bagged the first medal for the country in the Olympics, the release said. We are proud of her and can’t express our happiness in words.
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The Uttar Pradesh government also announced that it will honour Sakshi with the coveted Rani Laxmi Bai award that carries a cash prize of Rs 311,000, a citation and a statue of Rani Laxmi Bai. “That’s why I attacked again and again succeeding after a lot of effort”, she said, adding that the medal was dedicated to “every person who helped me along, my parents, my coaches and my training partners”.
