Geeta Phogat, Babita Phogat, Pooja Dhanda nad Vinesh Phogat were the ones to win medals at the World Wrestling Championship. But, all of them were Bronze medals. Now, after Anshu Malik becomes the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the World Championship final, India have a solid chance to see the flag get hoisted.

Anshu will be up against 2016 Olympic Champion Helen Maroulis for the gold medal. She is now the sixth Indian wrestler to feature in the final of the Wrestling World Championship. The list features Bishambar Singh (1967), Sushil Kumar (2010), Amit Dahiya (2013), Bajrang Punia (2018) and Deepak Punia (2019).

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Malik, who is the current Asian Champion defeated junior European champion Solomiia Vynnyk. She outclassed her opponent by technical superiority. However, another Indian wrestler Sarita Mor lost her semi-final match and will fight for a bronze.

"It's extremely satisfying. I am so happy. It feels so good. What I could not do at the Tokyo Games I did that here. I fought each and every bout as my last bout."

Anshu after reaching the final.

Anshu Malik started participating in the senior category only from last year and had some success since then. However, she has stated that the Olympic failure has turned her into someone more motivated and skillful despite the injury.

"The month after the Tokyo Games was very tough. I could not perform as I had wanted at the Games. I suffered an injury (elbow) and can't explain how much pain I endured one month before the World championship," Anshu said to PTI.

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Anshu's technical moves were the reason of her success. She was able to apply take-down move to Vynnyk thrice. Not only that she was able to finish the bouts with some exposure moves.

India's result at the Wrestling World Championship

Meanwhile, this will India's only confirmed medal till now in the event. Sarita Mor lost to Bilyana Zhivkova Duodova 0-3. Divya Kakran lost against Japan's Under-23 world champion Masako Furuich. Ritu Malik, with a knee injury could not handle Ukraine's Anastasiia Lavrenchuk. Pooja Jatt also lost her repechage against Eucuador's Luisa Elizabeth Melendres.

The year 2025 is going to be exciting for Indian sports fans as it promises an action-packed calendar. This includes world events in hockey, squash, boxing, badminton, shooting and cricket, alongside the National Games and Khelo India competitions. The country is set to witness a wide range of sporting events this year. 

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After bidding goodbye to an eventful 2024, an exciting 2025 awaits sports fans as far as India are concerned. India will host several big competitions across sports this year, including the Women’s ODI World Cup and the Para World Athletics Championships.

Apart from hosting competitions, India will also take part in several multi-nation tournaments internationally, including the ICC Champions Trophy which will be held in a hybrid model with matches taking place in Pakistan and UAE.

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Several Indian athletes and teams, including the likes of Neeraj Chopra and Manu Bhaker, will be in action this year. The India women’s cricket team will hope to end a long wait to possibly clinch the Women’s ODI World Cup.

Here’s the complete list of major sports events in India 2025.

Major sports events in India 2025

Indian women's wrestlers Aditi Kumari, Neha, Pulkit and Mansi Lather made it 4-on-4 by winning 4 Gold medals in 43kg, 57kg, 65kg and 73kg women's freestyle respectively in the U17 Wrestling World Championships 2024 in Amman.

Indian boys Ronak Dahiya and Sainath Pardhi already had won two bronze medals in the Men's Greco-Roman category and on Thursday it was the girl's time to bring glory to the country.

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Aditi, Neha, Pulkit and Mansi dominate in Women's fresstyle

Aditi Kumari defeated Maria Louisa Gkika of Grece by 7-0 in the final of the 43kg freestyle category to win India's first gold of the U17 Wrestling World Championships 2024.

After that, Neha continued the momentum for India So Tsutsui of Japan by technical superiority 10-0 in the final of the women's freestyle 57kg to clinch India's second gold. That was Neha's third win by superiority or fall in the tournament.

Pulkit then ensured India's third gold of the night and competition by beating Daria Frolova (AIN) 6-3 in the women's freestyle 65kg division.

In the end, Mansi Lather made it 4 out of 4 for India in the Women's freestyle wrestling by pinning Hanna Pirskaya (AIN) while leading 5-0 in the final of the women's freestyle 73kg category.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) accepted Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat's appeal against her disqualification at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Thursday. The hearing will start at 5:30 PM IST.

The hearing will be conducted online

Joelle Monlouis, Estelle Ivanova, Habbine Estelle Kim, and Charles Amson will be the lawyers representing Vinesh at the CAS hearing. The hearing will be conducted online. If Vinesh wins the appeal, she will be awarded a joint-silver medal. If she loses, the disqualification will stand, and she will finish in last place.

Vinesh found overweight

Vinesh Phogat stormed into the final after three sensational wins in the women's 50kg category and boosted India's hopes for the first gold at the 33rd Summer Games. But Vinesh's weight was found to be 100 grams more than her prescribed category of 50kg.

After this, the Olympic Association disqualified her from the freestyle women's wrestling final against USA's Sarah Hildebrandt and was denied a silver as well. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and IOA strongly protested against the disqualification and the wrestler approached the Court of Arbitration on Wednesday.

Vinesh took retirement

A day after her disqualification from the Paris Olympics 2024, Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement from wrestling on X. 

Phogat was favored to win a historic gold medal and was assured of at least a silver before the disqualification. However, being disqualified due to weight meant that none of her earlier victories counted, and she returned home without a medal.

Vinesh Phogat, the Indian wrestler who had become the first-ever Indian female wrestler to qualify for the finals at the Olympics, was disqualified from the Paris Olympics 2024 since she was found overweight by just 100 grams.

Phogat had beaten Yui Susaki, Oksana Livach and Yusneylys Guzmán in the pre-quarters, quarters and semi-finals before reaching the finals. Sadly, everything changed for Vinesh Phogat and nearly 1.4 Billion Indian fans when she failed the weight test today.  

The three-time Commonwealth Games Gold medalist was found 100 gms overweight, and as per the rule of the United World Wrestling, she will be scraped from medals and will be placed last in the tournament.

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How does the weigh-in happen?

As per United World Wrestling Article no. 11, "For all competitions, the weigh-in is organised each morning of the concerned weight category. The weigh-in and the medical control lasts 30 minutes. The second morning of the concerned weight category only the wrestlers who participate in the repechages and finals have to come for the weigh-in. This weigh-in will last 15 minutes. "

2kg tolerance allowed on the first day

There are two kinds of rules for two weigh-in days as per United World Wrestling. As per their rule, they allow a 2kg tolerance on the first day of weigh-in but do not allow the same for the next day.

"The medical control and a first weigh-in will be held the morning of the concerned weight category. The qualified athletes for the finals and repechages will be weigh-in again the second morning of the concerned weight category. No more weight tolerance will be allowed for the second weigh-in."

"2kg weight tolerance is allowed for World Cup, UWW Ranking Series Tournaments and for the International Tournaments," article no. 3 of the United World Wrestling states.

So, this means Vinesh was below 52kg yesterday morning but had to be below 50kg to be able to play in the finals.

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Vinesh and the team did everything they could do

Sources from Vinesh Phogat's team reveal the harrowing run up to the weigh in this morning. #Paris2024 | #OlympicGames | #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/ynCLLkUPc0

— Sportstar (@sportstarweb) August 7, 2024

Vinesh Phogat and her team did everything they could do the shred off those extra two kilos. But, cutting down extra weight from the body is an extremely rigorous process.

The wrestler needs to cut down on water, food and everything and at the same time lose calories doing exercise to lose weight. Vinesh did everything.

She was seen doing jumping ropes in a sweat suit and worked on it throughout the day. This caused her a tremendous amount of dehydration and had to be hospitalised right after disqualification.

Examples of wrestlers getting disqualified due to not making the weight limit at Paris Olympics 2024

Yes, there are three more wrestlers who were disqualified as they could not make the weight limit at the Paris Olympics 2024.

• Stevan Mićić (Serbia) - Men's Freestyle 57kg
• Batyrbek Tsakulov (Slovakia) - Men's Freestyle 65kg
• Danila Semenov (Russia) - Men's Light Heavyweight (80-92kg)

Dear @Phogat_Vinesh, you will always be a champion in our eyes. I was deeply hoping you could win the gold. The little time I spent with you at PDCSE was watching a woman with a superhuman will fight to get better. It was inspiring. I am here for you always, sending all the…

— Pvsindhu (@Pvsindhu1) August 7, 2024