Sonam Malik is a professional Indian woman wrestler from Sonipat, Haryana. She represents India internationally in the women’s 65 kg wrestling category. She bagged a gold medal at the National Games and two gold medals at the World Cadet Wrestling Championship. In April 2021, Sonam Malik became the youngest Indian freestyle woman wrestler to qualify for the Olympics at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Sonam Malik was born on Monday, 15 April 2002 (age 21; as of 2023) in Madina village of Sonipat, Haryana. Her zodiac sign is Aries. She joined the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Sports Complex in her village and got coaching under the academy coach, Ajmer Malik. Apart from her sports career, Sonam Malik is currently pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Arts from All India Jat Heroes’ Memorial College, Rohtak.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 5″
Weight (approx.): 62 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Sonam Malik comes from a family of wrestlers. Her father, Rajinder Malik is a wrestler who has competed in several local tournaments which inspired Sonam Malik to choose wrestling as a sport in her career. Her mother’s name is Meena Malik. There is not much information about her siblings.
Husband & Children
She is unmarried.
Religion
Sonam Malik follows Hinduism.
Career
Sonam Malik participated in several junior district and state competitions in Haryana before joining the National School Games. In 2016, Sonam Malik made her debut in wrestling matches at the National School Games and won her first national Gold medal in wrestling. In 2017, she bagged three medals at the Cadet World Wrestling Championship where she won a silver medal, a bronze medal, and a gold in the Cadet World Wrestling Championship. She won a gold medal in the World School Sports Games 2017. In 2018 and 2019, she represented India and won bronze medals at the Cadet Asian Wrestling Championship. In 2020, she subdued the bronze medallist of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sakshi Malik in January 2020 during the Asian Championship trials, and then in February 2020 during the Asian Olympic Qualifiers selection. She represented India and won the silver medal at the 2022 World Junior Wrestling Championship event, in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2022, she represented India at the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, congratulated Sonam Malik on Twitter for winning the Bronze Medal in the Women’s Wrestling 62 kg Freestyle event at the Asian Games. The tweet read,
Congratulations to @OLYSonam for her outstanding Bronze Medal in the Women's Wrestling 62kg Freestyle event! Hers is a phenomenal win, marked by unmatched zeal, passion and determination. I extend my best wishes for her future endeavours. pic.twitter.com/79RVPZCtSB
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 6, 2023
Controversy
The Wrestling Federation of India issued a notice against Sonam Malik
In 2023, The Wrestling Federation of India suspended Vinesh Phogat for indiscipline over three counts during the Tokyo Olympics2023 and issued a warning notice to Sonam Malik for the misconduct, who took the assistance of the SAI organisation in obtaining her passport before leaving for the Games. However, Sonam Malik replied to the notice she got from the national federation, apologising for the misconduct. WFI has confirmed,
Sonam has replied to the notice and promised that she won’t repeat it. The federation will soon take a decision on the matter.” [1]Outlook
Awards, Honours, Achievements
Medals
Gold
- She won a Gold Medal in 62 kg wrestling at the Cadet World Wrestling Championships 2017.
- She won a Gold Medal in 62 kg wrestling at the Cadet World Wrestling Championships 2018.
- She won another Gold Medal in 62 kg women’s freestyle wrestling at the Cadet World Wrestling Championships 2019, in Bhiwani.
Silver
- Sonam Malik won a Silver Medal in the 67 kg wrestling National Championships 2017.
- Sonam Malik is the silver medallist of the Junior World Championship 2022.
Bronze
- She won a Bronze Medal in 62 kg wrestling at Cadet Asian Wrestling Championships 2017.
- She bagged a Bronze Medal in 62 kg wrestling at Asian Wrestling Championships 2018. [2]Times of India
- She won a bronze in the 62 kg women’s freestyle wrestling category in the 2022 Asian Games.
Others
- In January 2020, Sonam Malik secured her place in the Olympics after qualifying for the finals at the Asian Olympic Qualifier tournament under the 62 kg women’s freestyle wrestling category.
- She was the winner of Bharat Kesari Dangal in 2022.
Facts/Trivia
- Sonam Malik lost the game against the Pan-American champion, Ana Godinez during the first round of the women’s 62kg freestyle wrestling category at the World Wrestling Championships 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia. [3]Olympics
- Sonam Malik defeated two-time Asian silver medallist, Ayaulym Kassymova of Uzbekistan by a score of 8-0 in the qualification round of the World Wrestling Championship 2022.
- In 2017, Sonam Malik had an injury on her right shoulder during a tournament. Due to this, her treatment continued for about one and a half years and she made a massive comeback in the WC Trials in 2022. Her personal coach, Ajmer Malik advised her to take complete rest as he mentioned in an interview about Sonam Malik’s health,
Sonam is still undergoing a rehabilitation programme at her home in Sonepat. Since she is yet to fully recover from the knee injury sustained in April, she isn’t training hard or compete. She couldn’t hold her arm up. She wasn’t able to grip anything with any strength. The diagnosis was that the nerves in her shoulder were simply not transmitting any impulses down to harm. The doctor told her to forget about wrestling and think about how she would live from there onwards.” [4]Times of India
- In January 2023, Sonam Malik and her fellow wrestlers signed a complaint to the Indian Olympic Association against the WFI President, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for mental and sexual harassment of young woman wrestlers. Sonam Malik along with other wrestlers sat in front of Jantar Mantar to boycott the WFI President.
@PMOIndia @AmitShah @ianuragthakur @PTUshaOfficial pic.twitter.com/yayk3uqjs3
— Bajrang Punia 🇮🇳 (@BajrangPunia) January 20, 2023
At Jantar Mantar #BotcottWFIPresident #BoycottWrestlingPresident pic.twitter.com/RRQerhzVbf
— Sonam Malik (OLY) 🇮🇳 (@OLYSonam) January 18, 2023
References
↑1 | Outlook |
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↑2 | Times of India |
↑3 | Olympics |
↑4 | Times of India |