Rani Rana Wiki, Height, Weight, Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More

Rani Rana is an Indian woman wrestler. She came into the limelight after winning a Gold Medal in the 55 kg category at the National Women’s Wrestling Championship in 2019 and became the first woman wrestler hailing from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.

Wiki/Biography

Rani Rana was born in 1996 (age 27 years; as of 2023) in Jakhara village of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. She faced criticism from the villagers when she started wrestling with the boys of the village as there was no girl in the village to wrestle with; her parents left the village and started living in a city so that Rani Rana can pursue her passion. Later, she joined Indore’s Sports Authority of India to learn the manoeuvre of mat wrestling.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 4″

Weight (approx.): 60kg

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

Rani Rana’s father’s name is Surendra Singh Rana, and her mother’s name is Uma Devi Rana. She has a brother.

Husband & Children

Rani Rana married Prince Rana, a boxer and gym trainer on 16 February 2020.

Career

Wrestler

In 2016, after defeating a female wrestler, Chitra Yadav, at the annual Dada Bhilchandra Sule wrestling championship in the Sardar Vallabbhai Patel Higher Secondary School in Kodariya village, Gwalior, Rani Rana challenged a male wrestler named Vinod Prajapati to wrestle with her. She defeated him with the Nelson Hold in just a minute.

After the competition when she was asked about challenging a male counterpart, she stated

Challenging a male counterpart is not a big deal for me as in the past I faced several male wrestlers in the arena. The most important thing was that I wanted to show people that we are no less in strength and can beat anyone on any day.”

From 2017 to 2020, she won the bronze medal at Senior Wrestling Championship. ^[1]First Post In 2019, Rani won the Gold medal at the National Women’s Wrestling Championship in the 55 kg category held in Shirdi, Maharashtra; she defeated Mansi from Uttar Pradesh.

In October 2019, she represented India at the Senior World Championships held in Hungary in the age group of under 23, but she lost to Dominique Olivia Parrish from the United States of America.

In the same year, she participated in the Asian championships held in Xi’an, China. In 2022, she won a Silver Medal at Senior Federation Cup held in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

She won the medal Gold at National Wrestling Championship in the senior category held in Bhubaneswar.

Controversies

Criticism from Family

In 2016, when Rani got popular for pinning down a male wrestler in a minute, her real brother criticised her for wearing short clothes and wrestling with male opponents. In an interview, she said,

My brother and other relatives said I was exposing my body. But I never stopped chasing my dreams even when I was scolded by my relatives. My relatives criticised me even on January 11 when I pinned down a male wrestler within a minute of a bout.” ^[2]Hindustan Times

Positive Dope Test

In February 2020, when National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) collected samples of athletes to test, Rani Rana turned out to be positive for the use of a banned substance called Anabolic steroid and was suspended to participate in any competition. ^[3]The Times of India))

Dowry Case against In-Laws

On 6 August 2023, Rani Rana filed an FIR against her husband and in-laws for demanding dowry, torturing her physically and mentally. In an interview on 8 August 2023, she revealed that after 5-6 months of her marriage, her in-laws started abusing her for not bringing an adequate amount of dowry; she said that her parents gave an amount of ten lakhs to her in-laws in cash and other necessities of the household as dowry. Soon after, her in-laws started objecting to her for going out to the wrestling competitions and were not supporting her to pursue the sport. She claimed that on 30 May 2023, her in-laws threw her out of their house and called her parents, saying either to take her with them or she would be killed. Reportedly, before coming back to her paternal house, Rani Rana was physically abused by her husband; after returning from a Jat Samaj conference in Dabra, she and her husband had a heated argument over which he banged her head into the table and kicked her face. Following this, she decided to take legal action against her husband and in-laws and complained to the Morar police station. She also disclosed that her husband took all of her savings for himself and tried to trick her into an illegal loan sanction for a shop purchase which was registered in her mother-in-law’s name. She stated that this all started with the grudges and hatred they developed because of the popularity she earned over the years. ((Molitics

Facts/Trivia

• In 2016, Rani Rana got an offer from the Bollywood actor Aamir Khan to be part of the film Dangal, but she refused the offer and chose to continue with her wrestling career.

• In an interview in 2017, she said that her paternal and maternal grandfathers were wrestlers from whom she drew inspiration.

• In 2017, the District Administration of Gwalior made her the Brand ambassador of the city.

• She was appointed as the brand ambassador for the campaign Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in the district of Gwalior.

• Famous woman wrestler Sakshi Malik is Rani Rana’s favourite; in an interview, she said when she met Sakshi Malik for the first time, she got so inspired by her.