New Delhi: It’s August 31, and Antim Panghal has turned 22. She approaches a small group of journalists in the dimly-lit KD Jadhav Hall at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium with a smile and a box of sweets, her gaze occasionally shifting to the mat where the selection trials for the under-23 World Championships are on. She is seeking blessings and some birthday cheer.
Having said that, India won’t be pushovers either. Days like these are ideal to look back and peer into the future. Antim is game for it. “Outside of Asia, only the USA and Russia can be considered powerhouses in women’s wrestling, so we will have a tough competition in Japan. “You guys have the raw material. The talent is there, and I feel the Indian girls are really tough. Antim, in particular, has the potential to be a genuine global star. We need better mat intelligence and technical skills to realise our potential.
It’s funny considering she still has two years to compete at the U-23 level along with the seniors.
“I need to watch out for the next crop,” she jokes. “Wrestling is very much an Asian sport,” said national women’s coach Virender Dahiya. That’s where these countries score over us,” he said.
“Also, we shouldn’t get too excited with junior or age-group world titles. The ultimate goal is the Olympic gold. Everything you do until then is a means to that end and shouldn’t be treated as the end goal. Butler’s is an honest assessment of India’s sporting culture, and Antim agrees. “Early success gave me a lot of confidence. But the jump from the age-group to senior level is huge and needs constant technical refinement. If you look at Japan, they keep producing world-class wrestlers every couple of years.
Also, kids take up wrestling there as young as 3-4 years, whereas here we get serious about the sport at 11-12. Because they give a lot of emphasis to technical correctness, that’s.
The gap shows,” Antim, who had a training stint in Japan’s Nippon University last year, said.
I started taking myself more seriously after the 2023 Asian Games. “It’s a privilege, to be honest. Our wrestling team was struggling a bit and it was my first multi-discipline Games. “These nations start working on the technical side very early whereas in India, we first build strength and endurance and then the technical skills. To that end, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has hired American Ian Butler as the High-Performance Director. Butler, having spent just over a month in India with the women’s team, feels Indian wrestlers have what it takes to become world beaters.
I told myself I belong here. This time, I’d like to change the colour of my medal,” she said. That culture needs to change, and it is, finally,” Dahiya said. “I am confident of 3-4 medals from the team, and at least one gold,” Dahiya said. “We’re banking on Antim to get us that gold.”
