Winning Hold

It takes more than raw talent to be named among the world’s best athletes, create history and enter the record books. The right coach takes a player and moulds her into a champion. Urvashi Pant explores the dynamics between India’s top sportswomen and their coaches, and finds out just what gives their partnership the extra edge.

- Urvashi Pant

SAKSHI MALIK & MANDEEP Partnership: 6 years

“Hello, I’m Sakshi,” grins an atom-sized girl at the Chhotu Ram Stadium Wrestling Academy in Rohtak. The nine-year-old is one of several young wrestlers at the training centre that has been in the news since August this year. “And she’s a Malik,” Sakshi points to a shy pre-teen, who seems quite pleased at the introduction. The pride on their faces is unmistakable. It doesn’t matter that they share just half a name each with ‘Sakshi didi’, their senior at the facility and the country’s first woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal—Sakshi Malik’s bronze medal effort at Rio has given these budding pehelwans a new life goal.