Pooja Gehlot (born 15 March 1997) is an Indian freestyle wrestler, supported by OGQ. She won the bronze medal in the women's 50 kg event at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

held in Birmingham, England. She also won a silver medal at the

2019 U23 World Wrestling Championships The 2019 U23 World Wrestling Championships were the third edition of U23 World Wrestling Championships of combined events, held from October 28 to November 3 in Budapest, Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Ce ...

in the 53 kg category. Gehlot participated in this championship after a two year break because of a shoulder injury.

Personal life and background

Pooja Gehlot was born on 15 March 1997 in Delhi. She showed keen interest in sports from an early age. Her uncle Dharamveer Singh was a wrestler and he started taking her to an '' akhara'' when she was about six years of age. However, her father Vijender Singh was opposed to her playing wrestling and Gehlot started playing volleyball. She went up to play at the junior national-level in volleyball. Although, her coaches thought that she was not tall enough to make an impact in the game. Gehlot's got inspired after

Geeta Phogat Geeta Phogat (born 15 December 1988) is a freestyle wrestler who won India's first ever gold medal in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games in 2010. She is also the first Indian female wrestler to have qualified for the Olympic Summer Games. Per ...

and Babita Kumari Phogat from Haryana won medals for India at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, f ...

. The Phogat sisters' success inspired Gehlot to switch to wrestling. She began training professionally in 2014. However, the suburb of Delhi - where her family was living at the time - did not have a wrestling practice centre for girls. She found a training centre in Delhi city, which meant she had to travel three hours by bus every day to reach there and she had to wake up at 3 AM for that. However, the long distance had eventually forced her to shift to a nearby ''akhara'' and start training with boys. It was not easy for Gehlot to wrestle with boys and she felt shy wearing a singlet. The family moved to

Rohtak Rohtak () is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9(old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National ...

town in Haryana to enable her to access better training. She won the national junior wrestling championship in 2016 in the 48 kg weight category. However, in the same year, she suffered an injury that kept her away from wrestling for more than year.

Professional Achievements

Gehlot found her first success in the international arena when she won a gold medal in the Asian Junior Championship in Taiwan in 2017. Another major step for her was winning a silver medal at the under-23 World Wrestling Championship in the 51 kg category in Budapest, Hungary in 2019. She also became only the second Indian woman to win a silver medal in that event. In 2022, she competed at the Yasar Dogu Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Senior career results

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gehlot, Pooja 1997 births Living people Sportswomen from Delhi Sport wrestlers from Delhi Indian female sport wrestlers Wrestlers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in wrestling Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for India Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Wrestlers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for India