Paris 2024 Olympics wrestling: Selection policy for Indian wrestlers announced

With the Paris 2024 Olympics months away, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) appointed ad-hoc committee revealed the selection policy for Indian wrestlers for the Summer Games on Saturday.

According to the selection policy, the wrestlers who have obtained Olympic quota places for India will compete against a challenger on June 1 and the winner of that contest will go on to represent India in the particular weight category at the Paris Olympics.

Wrestling at the Paris 2024 Olympics will see competitions in 18 weight divisions — six each in the men’s and women’s freestyle and six in Greco-Roman wrestling. So far, Antim Panghal is the only wrestler to have obtained the Olympic quota for India with a world championships bronze in women’s 53kg.

Panghal, the reigning under-20 world champion, also won the bronze medal at the Asian Games for which she was initially designated as a standby. She was included in the main squad only after Vinesh Phogat withdrew due to injury. A potential showdown looms between these two prominent Indian wrestlers on June 1 for an Olympic spot.

India can earn 17 more quota places for the Olympics in the two tournaments — the  Asian Olympic Games Qualifier in Kyrgyzstan in April and the World Olympic Games Qualifiers in Turkey in May. The Indian squad for the two Olympic qualifying events will be selected through trials in February, for which Antim Panghal has been exempted. 

The selection trials for the two Olympic qualifying events will be open for wrestlers who were part of the Asian Games squad, the senior world championships, winners of open trials in U17, U20, U23 categories and all senior nationals and National Games medallists this year.

India have won a total of seven medals at the Olympics so far — the second-most after hockey. Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik are the three active Indian wrestlers who have medalled at the Olympics.