Anshu Malik is a freestyle wrestler from Haryana, India. At the 2021 World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway, she took home the silver medal in the women’s 57 kg category.

On Friday, Anshu Malik bagged the silver medal in the final of women’s 57kg freestyle wrestling at the Commonwealth Games 2022.

She was also the first wrestler from India to take home a silver medal in the women’s division of the World Wrestling Championships.

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Malik was born on August 5, 2001, in Jind district, Haryana. She comes from a line of wrestlers. Dharamvir Malik, Anshu’s father, was a professional wrestler who also served in the CISF. Her elder brother, Shubham Malik was also an avid wrestler. Her interest in the sport began when she went along with her brother to his training camp.

Anshu Malik’s breakthrough performance came in 2017 when she bagged the gold medal in the 60 kg category at the World Cadet Wrestling Championships held in Athens. At the 2020 Asian Wrestling Championships in New Delhi, India, she clinched the bronze medal in the 57 kg category. She then bagged the silver medal in the women’s 57 kg category in the 2020 Individual Wrestling World Cup in Belgrade, Serbia.

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Anshu Malik, the first Indian woman to accomplish the feat, etched her name in history when she won the silver medal at the 2021 World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway. The then 20-year-old competed valiantly but fell short in the final to two-time Olympic medalist Helen Maroulis of the USA. Along with Vinesh Phogat and Divya Kakran, Malik won the gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships in 2021. She won a bronze medal in the 57 kg category at the Ulaanbaatar 2022 Asian Wrestling Championships in April 2022.

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Malik qualified for the finals of the Asian Wrestling Qualifiers 2021 held at Almaty, Kazakhstan, which also made her the fifth Indian wrestler to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. However, she was beaten by Rio 2016 silver medallist Valeria Koblova of the Russian Olympic Federation (ROC).