Thursday, 21 December marked the end of an era in Indian wrestling with Sakshi Malik abruptly announcing her decision to retire at the age of 31. Malik will go down as one of India’s most decorated wrestlers of all time and that primarily has to do with her winning bronze in the 2016 Rio Olympics women’s 58kg category. The grappler from Rohtak had not only opened India’s account in the Rio Games in the process,, ending the country’s anxious wait for a first medal on the 12th day of competition, she also became only the fourth Indian woman to win an individual medal in the world’s biggest sporting event. Besides the Olympic bronze, Malik had also won gold in last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where she defeated Canada’s Ana Godinez, adding to her silver medal in Glasgow 2014 and bronze in Gold Coast 2018. So what exactly is the reason behind Malik bringing her career to such an abrupt end, that too when she’s a little over 30-years-old and it’s only been a little more than a year since she won CWG gold? Why did Sakshi Malik announce her retirement? Malik announced her decision to quit the sport after Sanjay Singh was elected as the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) new president on Thursday. The WFI Elections finally took place on Thursday after months of delay, with the results being announced on the same day, in which Singh’s panel won comfortably by seven votes while his rival Anita Sheoran got only seven. Malik, along with other star wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, were against Singh’s appointment as WFI chief given his close ties to Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh — the individual against whom the country’s top grapplers protested in New Delhi from April to June. “We slept for 40 days on the roads and a lot of people from several parts of the country came to support us. If Brij Bhushan Singh’s business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling,” said a tearful Malik during a press conference on Thursday.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Brij Bhushan had served as WFI president before Sanjay until he had to step down from the role after being accused of sexual harassing several female wrestlers. The wrestlers’ agitation eventually led to the Delhi police filing a chargesheet against the BJP MP from Kaiserganj. The wrestlers, instead, had backed former wrestler Sheoran’s candicacy for WFI president and had even approached Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur for assurance that no one with close ties to Brij Bhushan would be allowed to contest the polls. Brij Bhushan himself had been barred from contesting the polls, as were members of his family. Singh also happens to be vice-president of the UP Wrestling Association and hails from Varanasi.