What Are India's Wrestling Medal Prospects At The 2024 Summer Olympics?

In sports such as Wrestling and Shooting games, countries win quotas rather than individual athletes. This means the athlete who secured the quota can be substituted by another athlete leading up to the Games. As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority to choose athletes who represent their respective countries at the Summer Olympic Games 2024, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at the Paris Olympics 2024. Six Indian wrestlers will be participating in the Paris Olympics. They are Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Antim Panghal (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), Nisha Dahiya (68kg), and Reetika Hooda (76kg) in the women's category. Aman Sehrawat (57kg) will be the lone male wrestler representing the country. In this blog, we take a look at India's wrestling medal prospects at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

All about Indian Wrestling medal prospects at the 2024 Summer Olympics

1. From Vinesh Phogat to Aman Sehrawat: How Indian wrestlers qualified for Paris Olympics 2024

The Wrestling Federation of India has announced that they will not hold trials to select wrestlers for the Paris Olympics. Those who have already earned the Olympics quota will participate in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. The board decided after five wrestlers wrote a letter to them, requesting not to hold the trials as it would affect their preparations for the 2024 Summer Olympics. However, the decision ended the hopes of wrestlers like Ravi Dahiya, who failed to secure the Olympic quota. Dahiya is coming back from a knee injury after losing to Aman in the selection trials for the two qualification competitions for the Paris Olympics. Six Indian wrestlers will be participating in the Paris Olympics. Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Antim Panghal (53kg), Anshu Malik (57kg), Nisha Dahiya (68kg), and Reetika Hooda (76kg) will be competing in the women's category, while Aman Sehrawat (57kg) will be the lone male wrestler representing the country.

2. How is the form of the Indian wrestlers ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games?

In the women's 50kg category at the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers, Vinesh Phogat defeated Miran Cheon of the Republic of Korea, an Asian Championships bronze medallist, with a 10-0 victory via technical superiority in the qualifier. During the same event, Anshu Malik secured a quota spot in the women's 57kg category. The 22-year-old Anshu defeated Kyrgyzstan's Kalmira Bilimbek Kyzy 12-1 in the quarter-finals and later achieved a technical superiority win of 11-0 over Uzbekistan's Laylokhon Sobirova in the semifinals to secure her quota. U23 world champion Reetika Hooda defeated South Korea's Eunju Hwang, Mongolia's Davaanasan Enkh Amar, and China's Juan Wang to reach the semifinals of the women's 76kg category at the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers. After defeating Chinese Taipei's Hui Tsz Chang 7-0, she secured a spot for India in the Paris Olympics.

Another Indian women's wrestler, Antim Panghal, secured an Olympic quota for India in the women's 53kg category by winning a bronze medal at the World Championships. Additionally, Nisha Dahiya secured the quota for the women's freestyle 68kg category at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Istanbul. Talking about Olympics news, the only male wrestler on the list, Aman Sehrawat, secured a quota in the men's 57kg freestyle category at the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Istanbul, Turkey. U23 world champion Sehrawat defeated Chongsong Han of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 12-2 in the semifinal, earning India's sixth quota in wrestling for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

3. Athletes competing in the Summer Olympic Games 2024

With the likes of Vinesh Phogat, Antim Panghal, Anshu Malik, and Aman Sehrawat, India has a really good chance of winning Olympic medals in Wrestling events. A mind-boggling total of 10,500 athletes from 206 NOCs and a Refugee Olympic Team will compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. With 68 days left before the start of the Olympic Wrestling events, there couldn't be a better day to look at the Indian contingent. Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra will be one of the Olympic torch bearers of the Paris Olympics 2024. Indian Javelin throw superstar Neeraj Chopra will be defending his title at the Paris Olympics and will be entering the global competition as one of the greatest Olympic gold medalist in India, which is a huge stature at this moment. The closing ceremony is scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 11 at the Stade de France, which is the national stadium of the country. The ceremony will feature stunning performances by celebrities from the host country. However, the details of the performances will not be disclosed until the days leading up to the event.