Bajrang Punia is the most decorated Indian freestyle wrestler of his generation. Between 2013 and 2022 he won four World Championships medals, an Olympic bronze at Tokyo, two Commonwealth Games golds and an Asian Games title, all from a style built on relentless pressure, leg attacks and a habit of scoring late when opponents had begun to tire.
Name: Bajrang Punia | Born: 26 February 1994, Khudan, Jhajjar district, Haryana | Sport: Wrestling | Event: Men's freestyle 61 kg and 65 kg
A village akhara and Chhatrasal Stadium
Bajrang grew up in Khudan, a village in what was then Rohtak district and is now part of Jhajjar. His father had wrestled, and the boy started in the local mud akhara at the age of seven. The family did not have much money, and wrestling and kabaddi cost almost nothing to take up, so the choice was practical as much as anything else.
In 2008 he moved to Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi, the training base that had already produced Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt. Coach Ramphal Mann worked with him there, and Yogeshwar became both a training partner and a mentor. The two would later face each other in the Pro Wrestling League, a contest billed at the time as a meeting between a teacher and his pupil. In 2015 the family moved to Sonepat so that Bajrang could train at the Sports Authority of India centre there.
First medals on the world stage
His senior breakthrough came in 2013. At the Asian Championships in New Delhi he took bronze at 60 kg, and later that year he went to Budapest for the World Championships. He lost his opening bout 7-0 to Vladimir Dubov, but the repechage gave him another route to the podium. He beat Ivan Guidea 10-3 and then Enkhsaikhany Nyam-Ochir 9-2 to win bronze at the age of 19.
2014 brought three silver medals at 61 kg. He lost the Commonwealth Games final in Glasgow to Canada’s David Tremblay, lost the Asian Championships final in Astana and then reached the Asian Games final in Incheon, where Iran’s Masoud Esmaeilpour beat him 3-1. At the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas he finished fifth after his bronze bout ended 6-6 and was decided on the last point scored.
Moving up to 65 kg
From 2016 Bajrang settled at 65 kg, and his results improved quickly. He won the Asian Championships in New Delhi in 2017, the Commonwealth Championships in 2016 and 2017, and silver at the World Under-23 Championships in Bydgoszcz.
2018 was his best year. At the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast he beat Wales’ Kane Charig by technical superiority in the final. At the Asian Games in Jakarta he met Japan’s Daichi Takatani for gold; the score was 6-6 at the break, and Bajrang pulled away to win 11-8. At the World Championships in Budapest he reached the final, losing to Japan’s Takuto Otoguro, and the silver was the best result of his career at that level.
Tokyo and the bronze on a bad knee
A bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan earned India its Olympic quota in the 65 kg class. In 2020 and 2021 he won ranking series events in Rome, beating American Jordan Oliver 4-3 in the 2020 final.
Then, a month before Tokyo, he hurt his right knee at a tournament in Russia. He wrestled at the Games with the knee heavily strapped. His opening bout against Kyrgyzstan’s Ernazar Akmataliev finished 3-3 and he went through on the higher-scoring move. He pinned Iran’s Morteza Ghiasi Cheka in the quarter-final but lost the semi-final 12-5 to Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev.
For the bronze bout on 7 August 2021 he took the strapping off. Against Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov he won 8-0, and the medal was India’s sixth of the Games. The Haryana government announced a reward of Rs 2.5 crore, with further awards from the central government, the BCCI and the Indian Olympic Association.
A second Commonwealth gold and a fourth world medal
In 2022 he retained his Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham and won bronze at the World Championships in Belgrade, beating American Sebastian Rivera in the bronze bout. That gave him four World Championships medals, more than any other Indian wrestler. He also collected silver at the Asian Championships in 2020, 2021 and 2022, losing the 2021 final in Almaty to Otoguro once more.
The 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, held in 2023, ended without a medal. He lost his semi-final and the bronze bout and finished fifth.
Protest, suspension and life after the mat
In 2023 Bajrang was one of the leading faces of the wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against the then Wrestling Federation of India president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, over allegations of sexual harassment made by women wrestlers. In December 2023, after an associate of Brij Bhushan was elected to head the federation, Bajrang returned his Padma Shri and left the medal on a footpath near the Prime Minister’s residence.
In 2024 the National Anti-Doping Agency suspended him for refusing to give a urine sample at selection trials, and in November 2024 it imposed a four-year suspension. He has disputed the decision.
He resigned from his post as a sports officer with Indian Railways in September 2024 and joined the Indian National Congress that month alongside Vinesh Phogat. He is married to wrestler Sangeeta Phogat.
Career record and honours
- Olympic Games: bronze, Tokyo 2020 (65 kg)
- World Championships: bronze 2013 (60 kg), silver 2018, bronze 2019, bronze 2022 (all 65 kg)
- Asian Games: silver 2014 (61 kg), gold 2018 (65 kg)
- Commonwealth Games: silver 2014 (61 kg), gold 2018 and 2022 (65 kg)
- Asian Championships: gold 2017 and 2019, silver 2014, 2020, 2021 and 2022, bronze 2013 and 2018
- Commonwealth Championships: gold 2016 and 2017
- World Under-23 Championships: silver 2017
- Arjuna Award: 2015
- Padma Shri: 2019 (returned in December 2023)
- Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna: 2019
