Pooja Dhanda (born 1 January 1994) is an Indian

wrestler Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves diffe ...

from Budana village of

Hisar district Hisar district is one of the 22 districts of Haryana, India. Hisar city serves as the district headquarters. Hisar district has four sub-divisions that is, Hisar, Barwala, Hansi and Narnaud, each headed by an SDM. The district is also part of ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

,Once a judoka, Pooja Dhanda wants to win laurels in wrestling

Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

, 25 Feb 2018. who won Bronze medal at the 2018 World Championships at Budapest in 57 kg weight class. She won Silver medals at

2010 Summer Youth Olympics The 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, ) officially known as the I Summer Youth Olympic Games, and commonly known as Singapore 2010, were the inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an Olympic Games-based event for young athletes. Held ...

and

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

at Gold Coast in 60 kg and 57 kg category respectively. The grappler also won a Bronze at the 2014 Asian Wrestling Championship. Pooja has defeated Olympic and

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

medalists. Government of India honoured her with the

Arjuna award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

for outstanding performance in the field of Sports.

Early life

Pooja was born in Budana village of

in Haryana. The daughter of a tractor driver with the Haryana Animal Husbandry Centre in Hisar, Dhanda started as a

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

player at Mahabir Stadium but switched to wrestling in 2009. Pooja Dhanda is the daughter of Kamlesh Dhanda and father, Ajmer who was an athlete himself. She began her sporting journey with

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

in 2007. She was still below the minimum age required to participate in wrestling federation competitions, and hence started playing Judo. Pooja first secured a Bronze medal a
Asian Cadet Judo Championship
at Hyderabad in 2007 and then won a Gold at the same event in its 2008 edition. Despite the achievements, former India wrestler and coach Kripa Shankar Bishnoi advised her to make wrestling her career. Pooja began to train for wrestling under coach Subhash Chander Soni at Hisar in 2009. In 2010 Pooja won Silver in wrestling at the

Summer Youth Olympics Summer or summertime is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are the longest and darkness hours are the shortest, with day ...

in Singapore. Pooja won against famous grappler Babita Phogat in the final of the National Championship in 2013 and then won a Bronze medal at the Asian Championship in 2014. But a ligament injury in 2015 almost ended her career. The challenge was not only psychological but also of lack of financial resources. She had to undergo surgeries in Mumbai and follow a long process of rehabilitation. Government paid for her treatment, but rehabilitation costs, physiotherapist’s fee and rent were significant. Employed with Haryana Sports Department as a wrestling coach, Pooja was on leave without pay.

Career

After switching to wrestling in 2009, as a young sportswoman, Pooja's career took off on a promising note when she won the silver medal at the

in the 60 kg category. After she debuted in the national championship in 2013,she participated in the World Wrestling Championship for the first time but was out of the event after a loss in the first round. she defeated Babita Phogat in the final, followed by a Bronze medal in

Asian Wrestling Championship Asian Wrestling Championships is the Wrestling Asian Championship organized by the Asian Associated Wrestling Committee (AAWC). The men's tournament began in 1979 and The women's tournament was first staged in 1996, and it has been held every year ...

at Astana in 2014. and has since won all four senior national championships by 2017. In the Pro Wrestling League season 3, she has defeated World and Olympic champion

Helen Maroulis Helen Louise Maroulis ( ; born September 19, 1991) is an American freestyle wrestler who competes in the women's 55-kg, 53-kg, and 57-kg categories. She was a gold medalist at the 2015 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada and a go ...

of the USA twice, World Championship silver medallist and Olympic bronze medallist Odunayo Adekuoroye of Nigeria and World Championship silver medallist Marwa Amri. Pooja was screened and originally selected to play the role of Babita Phogat in blockbuster '' Dangal'' (2016), which she could not play due to an injury. However, Pooja later competed against and defeated senior Phogat sister Geeta Phogat in the real-life

selection trials. She won silver medal in the

at Gold Coast in the women's 57 kg freestyle wrestling after losing to Nigeria's Odunayo Adekuoroye 7-5 in the final at the Carrara Sports Arena 1.CWG 2018: Pooja Dhanda wins silver, Divya Kakran bags bronze as India's medal rush in wrestling continue
Times Now News, 13 April 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dhanda, Pooja Living people 1994 births Sportspeople from Hisar (city) Sportswomen from Haryana Female sport wrestlers from Haryana 21st-century Indian women 21st-century Indian people Wrestlers at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Commonwealth Games silver medallists for India Commonwealth Games silver medallists in wrestling Wrestlers at the 2018 Asian Games Wrestlers at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Asian Games competitors for India Recipients of the Arjuna Award World Wrestling Championships medalists Asian Wrestling Championships medalists Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games