India at World Wrestling Championships: History and all medal winners - full list
Sushil Kumar became India’s first wrestling world champion in 2010 while Bajrang Punia has won the most medals for the country - four.
Wrestling
The first World Wrestling Championships were held in 1904 in Vienna but it took India a little over half a decade, or 14 years since its independence, to win their first medal at the meet.
Udey Chand is the first Indian wrestler to win a medal at the World Wrestling Championships. He bagged a bronze in the men’s freestyle 67kg category at the 1961 world championships held in Yokohama, Japan.
In total, India have won 23 medals at the World Wrestling Championships. These include one gold, five silver and 17 bronze. Twelve of these medals have come since 2018.
Of the 23 medals won by India, nine were bagged by women. Only one medal has come in the Greco-Roman category.
Bajrang Punia has won the most medals for India at the world championships with four - one silver and three bronze.
India’s second medal was an upgrade. Bishamber Singh won India’s first silver at the World Wrestling Championships in the 57kg men’s freestyle in New Delhi in 1967. It was the first and only time India hosted the wrestling world championships.
India had to wait nearly four decades for their next medal. It was Alka Tomar who broke the drought by becoming the first Indian woman to win a medal at the World Wrestling Championships. Tomar bagged a bronze in the 59kg category at the 2006 meet in Guangzhou, the People’s Republic of China.
Four years later, came a historic gold medal. Sushil Kumar became India’s first world champion in wrestling at the 2010 world championships in Moscow, Russia. He won the title in the 66kg freestyle category.
At the 2012 World Wrestling Championships in Strathcona County, Canada, India managed to win two medals at a single edition for the first time. It was the Phogat sisters to the fore as Geeta Phogat (55kg) and Babita Phogat (51kg) claimed a bronze each in their respective categories.
The following year, India did one better by winning three medals. The haul at the 2013 world championships in Budapest, Hungary included India’s first medal in the Greco-Roman category, courtesy a bronze from Sandeep Tulsi Yadav in the 66kg. The other medallists were Amit Dahiya with silver in the men’s 55kg freestyle and Bajrang Punia, who claimed a bronze in the men’s 60kg freestyle.
In 2018, Bajrang Punia became the first Indian wrestler to win two medals at the world championships. He won another bronze, again in Budapest, in the 65kg event.
Punia was also a part of India’s record haul of five medals at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Bajrang Punia (65kg freestyle), Rahul Aware (61kg freestyle) and Ravi Kumar Dahiya (57kg freestyle) won a bronze each. Vinesh Phogat too won a bronze in the women’s 50kg while Deepak Punia won a silver in the 86kg freestyle.
At the 2021 World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway, Anshu Malik became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the meet.
Vinesh Phogat, meanwhile, became the first Indian woman to win two medals at the World Wrestling Championships after she won another bronze, in the 53kg, in Belgrade Serbia. At the meet, Bajrang Punia won his fourth world championship medal, a bronze in the 65kg freestyle.