As the Indian wrestlers get ready to start their campaigns in the 2024 Olympic Games, Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik feels that the team has the potential to win 3-4 medals in Paris in the next few days.

In an interaction with IANS on Thursday, Sakshi pinned hopes on Vinesh Phogat (50kg), Antim Panghal (53 kilograms), Anshu Malik (57kg), Nisha (68kg) and lone male wrestler Aman Sehrawat (57 kg) to return home with medals. Apart from them, Reetika Hooda in the 76kg category will also make her Olympics debut in Paris.

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With the inclusion of seedings in wrestling for the first time, Antim and Aman have been seeded fourth and sixth in their respective weight categories. At the same time, the other Indians remain unseeded in the quadrennial mega event. “This time, I feel, we can bag 3-4 medals in wrestling because Vinesh, Antim, Anshu and my junior Nisha are there. Aman is a young and promising wrestler. So, we can hope for 3-4 medals,” said Sakshi.

Sakshi, who became the first Indian female wrestler to win an Olympic medal in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, said she is missing the feeling of being at the Olympics.

Despite their long protest against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers, the Olympic medallist said she is being sidelined from the sport and things would have been different if Brij Bhushan and his aides were removed from the organisation.

“Yes, I miss the Olympics as I’m watching it on TV. Everyone who has retired feels the same. In wrestling, the career of an athlete is very short compared to other sports. I’m doing my work but I miss the feeling of living in the Olympic village, playing there and meeting athletes. If there had been some improvement in the wrestling and it was not in control of Brij Bhushan and his aides, then I would have got my value. We feel sad that after such a long battle, we’re not getting any attention and have been sidelined from the game,” said the 28-year-old who retired from wrestling last year.

“I’m the only woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal so my involvement should have been there. I would have gone to Paris to watch matches. So, I miss all these things very much,” Sakshi added.

India has won seven Olympic medals in wrestling including the country’s first-ever individual medal won by KD Jadhav in the 1952 Helsinki Games. Sushil Kumar became the second wrestler to win an Olympic medal with a bronze at Beijing 2008. He then improved on it by winning a silver medal in London 2012, to become the first Indian to win two consecutive individual medals in the Olympics.

India has won at least one wrestling medal in each of the last four Olympics. In Tokyo 2020, Ravi Kumar Dahiya (silver) and Bajrang Punia (bronze) brought laurels to the country.

The Paris Olympics wrestling competitions are set to take place at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, a temporary structure spanning 10,000 square meters, from August 5 to August 11.