Vinesh Phogat, 28, won the bronze medal in 53 kg on Wednesday after defeating Emma Jonna Malmgren of Sweden. She has become the first woman wrestler to win two World Championship medals after the event. Her first World Championships medal came in 2019 at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, where she clinched a bronze medal.
Medals Journey:
Her medal journey started back in 2013 when she won her first-ever medal. It was a bronze medal that she won at the 2013 Asian Games in Delhi.
Later in the same year, she won the silver medal in the Youth Wrestling Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Vinesh represented India in the Commonwealth Games for the first time in 2014 in Glasgow. She clinched a gold medal for India in that tournament, and since then she has won three gold medals in her Commonwealth Games tally.
Vinesh won gold medals in each of the subsequent Commonwealth Games.
Gold medal in the 2018 Gold Coast meet in 50 kg, and a gold medal in Birmingham in 53 kg.
She won a gold medal in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games and a bronze in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
Asian Championships
Vinesh has won a gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in Asian Championships this far.
The gold medal came in 2021 at Almaty in the 53kg category.
The silvers came in 2015 Doha at 48 kg, 2017 New Delhi at 55 kg, and 2018 Bishkek at 50 kg.
Four bronze medals are said to have come from New Delhi in 2013 at 51 kg, Bangkok in 2016, Xian in 2019, and New Delhi in 2020.
The last three bronze medals in the Asian Championships came in the 53 kg category.
Coach and family
Mahavir Singh Phogat is the coach of Vinesh Phogat. She is the cousin of the great Indian women wrestlers, Geeta and Babita, dubbed Phogat sisters.
Both her cousins have won gold medals in the 55 kg category at the Commonwealth Games.
World Championship
Vinesh Phogat has to face Emma Jonna Malmgren of Sweden to achieve the medal.
She made a remarkable comeback after getting defeated in the first round.
Vinesh beat Jonna by 8-0 and achieved her second World Championship medal.
🇮🇳’s @Phogat_Vinesh wins her 2nd #WorldChampionship 🥉 after defeating Sweden’s Joana Malmgren 8-0
Great resilience by #VineshPhogat after shocking 1st round defeat yesterday.
She has now also become 1️⃣st Indian woman to have won 2️⃣ World Championships medals in #Wrestling 🤼♀️ pic.twitter.com/J0zpoWxKGz
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) September 14, 2022