The two-time Worlds medallist eyes an upgrade of her 2023 Hangzhou Games bronze and India a step up vs Asian powers

Published on: Sep 12, 2026, 17:17:27 IST

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New Delhi: It’s August 31, and Antim Panghal has turned 22. She is seeking blessings and some birthday cheer. 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.

“I need to watch out for the next crop,” she jokes. It’s funny considering she still has two years to compete at the U-23 level along with the seniors. Days like these are ideal to look back and peer into the future. Antim is game for it.

“It’s been an eventful ride, my career. I have literally grown up on the mat. I have no complaints from life, although I won’t mind a few more titles,” she says. The Asian Games in Japan (Sept 19-Oct 4) will give her the next big chance. It will be her second Games, and the 53kg wrestler will hope to improve upon her bronze at Hangzhou in 2023.

Already a two-time World Championships bronze medallist (2023, 2025), Antim is regarded among India’s brightest medal hopes, a tag she wears with quiet authority.

“It’s a privilege, to be honest. I started taking myself more seriously after the 2023 Asian Games. Our wrestling team was struggling a bit and it was my first multi-discipline Games. I told myself I belong here. This time, I’d like to change the colour of my medal,” she said.

A reality check though is in order. Hangzhou saw Japan’s Akari Fujinami win 53kg gold and China’s Pang Qianyu take silver. Antim and North Korea’s Hyogyong Choe took bronze. Overall, China, Japan and North Korea accounted for 14 of the 24 medals in women’s wrestling. India managed three bronze medals.

At this year’s Asian Championships in Bishkek, Indian women won five medals—one silver, four bronze—in 10 divisions. China, Japan and North Korea shared 21 of the 40 medals with China alone claiming 10, one in each weight class. Then, there are Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Mongolia, each with an impressive wrestling pedigree.

“Wrestling is very much an Asian sport,” said national women’s coach Virender Dahiya. “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. Having said that, India won’t be pushovers either.”

Women’s wrestling entered Asian Games in 2002 and India has won a medal at every edition. However, their nine medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 7 bronze) pales in comparison to Japan (23), China (20), and Mongolia (16). North Korea, from just two Asian Games (2018, 2023), has 10 medals.

“These nations start working on the technical side very early whereas in India, we first build strength and endurance and then the technical skills. That culture needs to change, and it is, finally,” Dahiya said. 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.

“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. 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. That’s because they give a lot of emphasis to technical correctness. Also, kids take up wrestling there as young as 3-4 years, whereas here we get serious about the sport at 11-12. The gap shows,” Antim, who had a training stint in Japan’s Nippon University last year, said.

Dahiya agreed. “Our basic coaches put a premium on strength and endurance, which is great but they need to upgrade their technical skills. Also, a lot of our junior wrestlers fall off the radar after early success because they can’t handle the fame or money.”

Technically, Antim has worked on her attacks and counterattacks post the 2024 Paris Olympics. A freak injury in the months leading up to it left her with neck and back injuries following a fall in training after the rope she was climbing snapped.

“The injury left her with a psychological dent and she was not confident of trying certain manoeuvres on the mat. It took a bit of rebuilding, both technical and mental. It’s only now that she is looking at her best,” a member of Antim’s support staff told .

By her standards, Antim has had a quiet year. A fiercely contested Asian Games selection trials, which she won after a bruising battle with Meenakshi Goyat, bronze at the Zagreb Ranking Series, and silver in Budapest are her only competitive outings. Antim insists the lack of competition is not a cause for concern.

“It was a well-thought-out decision to skip the Muhamet Malo and Ulaanbaatar instalments of the Ranking Series. I wanted to be completely fit going into the Asian Games and the World Championships (Oct-Nov). I am in the right frame of mind, and the body is responding well to training,” she said.

While she is the flag-bearer for women’s wrestling at the Asiad, Antim, the sole survivor from 2023, is not the only medal prospect. Manisha Bhanwala, having moved from 62kg to 57kg, is high on confidence after victories in the Zagreb and Ulaanbaatar Ranking Series this year.

The 18-year-old Dipanshi Phogat (50kg) is seen as a future star, and Priya Malik (76kg) as a dark horse. The coaches rate her highly, and the young wrestler wants to build on a breakout 2025 that saw her claim silver and bronze at the U-20 and U-23 Worlds respectively and the U-23 Asian gold.

“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.”

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