Siyanand Dahiya doesn’t even pause for a breath as he gives a peek into what went behind the scenes to transform a ‘broken’ wrestler into a ‘faster, fitter, upgraded’ version of herself.
An estimated 15,000 repetitions of leg attacks just this year (roughly 200 per technique training, twice a week), hundreds of situational practice drills, rope climbs, strength sessions, leg work, cross country running… “She has never been this well prepared,” Dahiya says of his most famous student, Antim Panghal.
On Wednesday, Antim, who wrestles in 53kg, will return to the big wrestling stage at the World Championship a year after making an unceremonious exit from the Paris Olympics. It’s a chapter of the 21-year-old’s nascent career that Dahiya hopes is ‘well and truly behind her’.
For Antim, Paris, the city of love and romance, ended with a heartbreak. She went there as one of India’s biggest, brightest medal hopes. She returned in disgrace, not because her maiden Olympics ended in just six minutes after losing 10-0 to Turkiye’s Zeynep Yetgil. But, in the manic 24 hours that began with Vinesh Phogat’s tragic disqualification ended with Antim being deported from France after she was accused of sneaking her sister into the Olympic village by breaking rules, leading to the cancellation of her accreditation.
”Toot si gayi thi (She was broken),” Dahiya says. “There were a lot of hopes from her. But her morale was shattered after not being able to live up to those expectations.”
At some level, Antim was a victim of her own early success. Wherever she had competed until then, the young wrestler hadn’t returned empty-handed. By 19, she was already a two-time under-20 world champion and the Asian champion in the same age group. The transition to seniors was seamless — winning the bronze medals at the World Championship and Asian Games in 2023, her first full senior year, and topping it up with a silver at the Asian Championship.
FILE: Antim Panghal in action at the Budapest Ranking Series against Felicity Taylor of USA. (United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)
Surrounded by greatness at the Olympics, however, Antim — her coach says — was gripped by imposter syndrome. “When she landed in Paris, she suddenly felt, ‘Where am I?’ She put herself under a lot of pressure,” Dahiya, the head of Inspire Institute of Sport’s (IIS) Hisar Centre, says.
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Antim took ‘five-six months’ to snap out of it. When she finally returned to the mat — ‘fresh and fit after the setback and an injury’, Dahiya adds — her team set afoot plans to make her more accustomed to the intensity and pressure of international wrestling. It was one of their takeaways from the Paris Olympics, which, Dahiya surmises, came a little too early for Antim.
Antim was flown to different parts of the world, including the World Championship host city Zagreb, in search of better sparring and competition experience. And wrestlers from different countries were flown to her training base at the IIS.
At home, Antim continued sparring with male wrestlers at the Hisar akhada where they worked on adding variety to her leg-attacks. A counter-attacking wrestler by nature, ‘Antim 2.0’ has developed at least three different ways to execute the same move. “On the face of it, it’s a plain ankle attack. But there can be different ways to get a grip of the opponent’s ankle. You can dodge and get hold of it, attack from the outside or counterattack from a defensive position,” Dahiya says. “Her counters were always strong, but she is now good at launching attacks from the outside as well.”
The idea, Dahiya says, was to make Antim ‘comfortable’ in her weight category. “You can see the difference now. She is able to identify her biggest challengers; their strengths, weaknesses… her awareness is better now than a year ago,” Dahiya says.
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That knowledge might come in handy over the next two days. Antim will have to navigate a tricky draw to stand on the podium. Seeded fourth, the Indian wrestler finds herself in the same half of the draw as the top seed and Paris Olympics silver medallist Lucia Yepez of Ecuador. If the draw holds, Antim is likely to run into her in the semifinals. To reach that far, a potential quarterfinal showdown with China’s Jin Zhang, a former under-20 world champion or Natalia Malysheva, the fifth seed from Russia, awaits. Antim, who has lost just one out of her 10 bouts this year, has beaten both wrestlers this year.
Dahiya isn’t too bothered by the draw, showcasing faith in their preparation for the World Championships. He points to one result that fills him with confidence. “She lost to a Turkish wrestler 10-0 at the Olympics,” he says, of the bout against Yetgil. “This year in July, she defeated the same wrestler 10-0. That’s the transformation I am talking about. She is ready to challenge for the gold.”
Antim’s possible opponents:
- First round: Bye
- Second round: Spain’s Carla Jaume Soler, who is expected to beat Lithuania’s Laura Stanelyte. A 21-year-old, like Antim, Soler won bronze at the U-23 European Championship this year.
- Quarterfinals: China’s Jin Zhang, a 2024 World Championship silver medallist at 55kg who has dangerous double-leg attacks. Antim defeated her when they last met at the Asian Championship; OR Natalia Malysheva of Russia, whom she defeated in the final of the Budapest Ranking Series in July and twice in the Ulaanbaatar Open in May.
- Semifinals: If she gets past the quarters, Antim is likely to run into the top seed and Paris Olympics silver medallist Lucia Yepez of Ecuador. Yepez is known for her explosive style, which has troubled even the Japanese wrestlers. The duo is yet to face each other this year.
