Sakshi Malik is an Indian professional athlete who represents India in wrestling. She competes in the 58kg freestyle wrestling category. Malik won the gold medal at Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.

Malik had previously won the bronze medal at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships in Doha and the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Malik was born on September 3, 1992, in the village of Mokhra in the Rohtak district of Haryana. At the age of 12, she started receiving training in wrestling from a coach named Ishwar Dahiya at an Akhara in Rohtak’s Chhotu Ram Stadium. In 2010, at the Junior World Championships, Malik achieved her first professional victory in the international ring when she won the bronze medal in the 58 kg freestyle competition.

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She won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. In the round of 16 of the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent, she was defeated. Malik placed third and won a bronze medal at the 2015 Asian Championships in Doha, Qatar. At the Olympic World Qualifying Tournament in May 2016, Malik defeated China’s Zhang Lan in the semifinal of the 58 kg division to earn a spot in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

 She won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, becoming the first female wrestler from India to do so. In 2016, Malik received the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, the country’s highest sporting honor. In 2017 she received the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest national honor bestowed by India.

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She received numerous cash awards totaling more than 5.7 crores after winning bronze in the Olympics from the Indian Railways, the Indian Olympic Association, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and sports, the Government of Delhi, state governments of MP, Haryana, and UP and from private organizations like the JSW Group. 

She participated in the Istanbul, Turkey, edition of the Yasar Dogu Tournament in 2022 and took home the bronze medal in her category.

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Malik is a participant in the JSW Sports Excellence Program and is currently employed by Indian Railways in the commercial division of its Delhi division, in the Northern Railway zone. She received a promotion from senior clerk to gazetted officer rank after winning the bronze medal at Rio.