Deepak Punia – Indian Wrestler
Deepak Punia was born on May 19, 1999 in Chhara village of Jhajjar district in Haryana, a place famous for its famous mud pit wrestling arena, known as akhadas.
For Deepak Punia, the sport is close to home as his father Subash – now a dairy farmer – was a wrestler. At the age of five, Deepak Punia enrolled in a khada in his hometown, run by wrestler Virender Singh. Young Deepak was nicknamed ketli (kettle) because he was said to have swallowed many glasses of milk until the kettle was empty.
Deepak Punia stands out for his dedication and commitment. His skills have allowed him to travel around Haryana, wrestling in village fights (called dangals) and winning cash prizes.
Personal life of Deepak Punia
Deepak Punia was born in Jhajhar district of Haryana. In Jhajhar village, struggle is still an option for people. Deepak’s father, Subash Punia, is a dairy farmer who takes little Deepak to the dangal. Deepak started his wrestling journey at the age of five at an akhara in his village run by Arjun champion Virender Singh Chhara. His father supported him a lot in his journey. Since 2015, Subash Punia has been walking 60 km daily to his training ground to give him milk & fruits. Deepak is a trained player and wrestler who gets that from his father. His father worked hard for his career, and Deepak’s success with the mat helped improve his family’s financial situation. Deepak has been making his family proud since he was seven years old.
Professional life of Deepak Punia
Deepak grew up watching the wrestlers around him as his hometown was active in the dangal circuit. Little Deepak was introduced to wrestling at the age of 4. One of his brothers, Sunil Kumar, was a good player in the wrestling circuit and it was he who accompanied Deepak to the akharas.
Soon, little Deepak started traveling to compete in a dangal in his nearby village. Little by little, he became a very special person. Despite the low income he earns from dangal, he eats his food and helps his family.
Sunil realizes that only wrestling in dangals will not grow Deepak as a wrestler. In 2015, Deepak moved to Delhi and joined the Chhatrasal play. Deepak’s rise to fame followed a pattern. He won the gold medal at the Cadet World Championship in 2016.
He received support from the Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) which removed some of the worries from the wrestler and now he is focusing on improving his skills.
Deepak Punia’s Carrer in Wrestling
Deepak Punia chose the World Cadet Championship to showcase his talent after wrestling guru Satpal in 2015. He won gold for India in the 85kg weight class at the World Cadet Championship in 2016. He went on to win a medal at the World Junior Championship three times to his name.
In the Asian Junior Championships held in 2018, Deepak won the gold medal for India in the 86kg category, displaying his best talent. Not only that, Deepak became part of the World Junior Championship in 2018 and was named the silver medalist.
He also won the bronze medal at the 2019 Asian Championships and the Asian Junior Championships. It is expected that the Asia Junior Championship and the World Junior Championship will be the best activity of the year 2019 due to the performance of the local people and will be invited to be part of the World Championship in 2019.
However, the World Cup Championship Deepak . unable to perform in 2019 due to injury. Also in 2020, he won the bronze medal for India in the Asian Championships. He has been selected as India’s representative in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan. Deepak Punia, in his best performance, had made his mark in the semi-finals but lost his semi-final match and lost his bronze medal in the Olympics. After David Taylor defeated the American,
Deepak left the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. After losing in the semi-finals of the Olympics, Deepak suffered a severe depression but did not give up and won another silver medal in the Asian Games held in 2021.
Not only that, he also won a silver medal in the Asian Championships in 2022, and the Commonwealth Games in the weight class of 886 kg from India in 2022. Compared to the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, they won their first Commonwealth Games gold medal by beating Pakistan.
Facts About Deepak Punia
Deepak Punia comes from a wrestling family
Deepak Punia hails from the state of Haryana and like many other kids in the state, he loves wrestling. His father and grandfather were both wrestlers and at the age of five he started wrestling. Deepak used to go to akhadas with his cousin in his youth. But his wrestling career started in 2015 when he was taken to Chhatrasal Stadium where he started his training to become a wrestler.
Deepak Punia World Class Ranking
Just three years since his victory at the World Junior Championship, Deepak Punia has proved to be something special. Going into the Olympics, he was ranked second to Iran’s Hassan Aliazam Yazdanicharati at 86 kg.
Deepak Punia ended 18-year-old India’s gold medal deficit at the World Junior Championships
In his short career, Deepak Punia has collected many awards. He won the 2019 World Junior Championships, which ended India’s gold medal deficit in the junior category after 18 years. In the same year, Deepak won silver in the world championships to secure his place in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He also won three medals at the Asian Championships, including two bronze and one silver.
Award and Achievement won by Indian wrestler – Deepak Punia.
Deepak Punia during his journey in 2015 at Chhatrasal Stadium started his training under the wrestler Guru Satpalji. Deepak then competed in the World Cadet Championship. However, he did not win any awards in this field. In the same year, he won the sub-junior world championship.
He went on to win silver and gold medals at the Junior World Championships in subsequent years. 2018 Asian Junior Championship brought Deepak gold medal in 86kg category and in 2019 Asian Junior Championship he won bronze medal.
In 2019, Deepak Punia was invited to participate in the World Championships in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan. However, due to an ankle injury, Deepak could not compete.
