Bajrang Punia

Biography

Bajrang Punia (born 26 February 1994) is an Indian freestyle wrestler, who competes in the 65-kg weight category. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Punia won a bronze medal by defeating Kazakhstan's Daulet Niyazbekov with an 8–0 margin.

Punia is the only Indian wrestler to win 4 medals at the World Wrestling Championships. He is one of the leaders of the ongoing 2023 Indian wrestlers' protest against BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Punia was born in Khudan, Jhajjar, Haryana, India. He began wrestling at the age of seven and was encouraged to pursue the sport by his father. Punia grew up in a rural area. His family did not have money for traditional sports.

Instead, he had to partake in free sports like Wrestling and Kabaddi. Punia's father was a wrestler as well and at a young age, his family enrolled him in a local mud wrestling school. Punia started to skip school to go to wrestling practice.

He went to Chattarsal Stadium in 2008 where he was trained by Ramphal Mann. In 2015, his family moved to Sonepat so that he could attend a regional center of the Sports Authority of India.

Currently, he works in the Indian Railways in the post of Gazetted officer OSD Sports.

Punia is married to fellow wrestler Sangeeta Phogat.