Sakshi Malik wins first medal for India at Rio Olympics, when she grabbed Bronze medal in Women’s freestyle 58kg wrestling. She won 4 matches and lost 1 to win this coveted medal for her country.
Her style of play is a bit different from others as she observe her opponent in first period and doesn’t hesitate if she looses points in first period. but in second period we see all together different wrestler as she become too attacking in last minute of play. Most of her matches she won with this strategy in Rio.
In her first Qualification match she faced Johanna Mattsson from Sweden, Mattson is 2014 European champion i 60kg and bronze medalist in world championship in 2010, Sakshi defeated her in last 5 seconds after getting 2 points in last 3 seconds. In Round of 16 match Sakshi played against Mariana Cherdivara from Republic of Moldova, Shakshi was trailing against her till last moment by and won the match on getting highest point from 1 move rule after match is ties 5-5 at the end of period 2.
In quarterfinals she played against Valeria Koblova from Russia, to whom Sakshi lost 2-9, but as Koblova reached finals of 58kg category, Sakshi got another shot at bronze medal and played Repechage round 2 against Pürevdorjiin Orkhon from Mongolia and won the match 3-1.
In bronze medal play-off, Sakshi played against Aisuluu Tynybekova from Kyrgyzstan, Sakshi won the match again in last moment by 8-5 and became the first female to win medal in wrestling.
