Olympic Day 2017: Sakshi Malik, the icon who broke free

On the occasion of International Olympic Day, TOI Sports is recapping some of the glorious Indian moments at the Summer Games over the years. In this instalment, a look back at wrestler Sakshi Malik’s bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Games.
On August 18, 2016, nearly two weeks of frustration, disappointment and hurt at the Rio de Janeiro Games came to an end when Sakshi became the first woman wrestler from India to bag an Olympic medal, and only the fourth female athlete from the country to stand atop a podium at the pinnacle of world sport.
The 23-year-old from Haryana, a silver medallist at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and bronze winner at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, earned a dramatic come-from-behind win over Kyrgysztan's Aisuluu Tynybekova to script history. It was India's 25th medal at the Olympic Games since independence in 1947.
Sakshi, who began training when she was 12, now stands as an icon for Indian women’s athletes and what makes her story even more remarkable is where she comes from. Her bronze medal is a major victory over sexism in one of India's most conservative states, Haryana, where women have long been treated as second-class citizens and ‘honour killings’ and sex-selective abortions are rife.
In March, she was been named TOISA Wrestler of the Year Award at the Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Awards (TOISA).