Sakshi Malik is an Indian freestyle wrestler from Haryana who became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in wrestling, claiming bronze in the 58 kg category at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She has competed at the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and World Wrestling Championships, and has also been a prominent figure in the wrestlers' protest movement against the Wrestling Federation of India in 2023.
| Full name | Sakshi Malik |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 3 September 1992 |
| Place of birth | Mokhra, Rohtak district, Haryana, India |
| Sport | Wrestling (freestyle) |
| Weight category | 58 kg / 62 kg |
| Coach | Ishwar Dahiya (early career), Kuldeep Singh |
| Spouse | Satyawart Kadian (wrestler) |
| Major honour | Olympic bronze medal, Rio 2016 |
| Civilian awards | Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2016), Padma Shri (2017) |
Sakshi Malik was born on 3 September 1992 in the village of Mokhra in Rohtak district, Haryana. Her father, Sukhbir Malik, worked with the Delhi Transport Corporation, and her mother, Sudesh, was a supervisor in a local health centre. She drew early inspiration from her grandfather, Badhlu Ram, who had been a wrestler. She began training in wrestling at the age of twelve at an akhara in Rohtak under coach Ishwar Dahiya, at a time when participation by girls in wrestling in rural Haryana was uncommon.
Sakshi made her mark on the international circuit by winning a bronze medal in the 59 kg category at the 2010 Junior World Wrestling Championships. She competed at the senior level in subsequent years across the Commonwealth and Asian circuits.
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, she won a silver medal in the women's freestyle 58 kg event. At the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships held in Doha, she won a bronze medal in the 60 kg category. She followed this with a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast in the 62 kg category and a bronze at the 2018 Asian Wrestling Championships in Bishkek.
Sakshi qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics by finishing in the top six at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Istanbul. At the Games, competing in the 58 kg freestyle category, she won the bronze medal play-off against Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan after trailing in the bout. She thus became the first Indian female wrestler to win an Olympic medal and the fourth Indian woman to win an individual Olympic medal.
She continued to compete at the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, and Asian Championships, winning the gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She did not qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She won a gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in the 62 kg category, defeating Ana Paula Godinez Gonzalez of Canada in the final.
In 2023, Sakshi Malik was among the leading figures, alongside Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, in a public protest against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the then president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), with allegations of misconduct levelled by several women wrestlers. The protest, conducted at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, drew wide national attention. In December 2023, after a WFI election outcome that she opposed, Sakshi announced her retirement from wrestling at a press conference. In 2024, she released an autobiography titled Witness, co-written with Jonathan Selvaraj, recounting her career and the protest.
Sakshi Malik's bronze at the 2016 Olympics is regarded as a landmark in Indian women's wrestling, opening the discipline as a viable career path for girls from rural Haryana, a region historically associated with male wrestling traditions. Her achievements, alongside those of the Phogat sisters and others, contributed to a wider shift in how women's wrestling is perceived and supported in India. Her role in the 2023 protest also placed her at the centre of debates over governance and athlete welfare in Indian sport.