Wrestling
Phogat Sisters — All you need to know about the Indian wrestling family
Mahavir Singh Phogat has led a revolution in Indian wrestling with his own daughters and nieces. Do you know them?
Is Vinesh Phogat a better wrestler than Geeta and Babita Kumari?
The Indian wrestling contingent have amassed several medals in international events over the last decade. Most of the success led by the Indian wrestlers was possible — thanks to the Phogat sisters. Mahavir Singh Phogat has led a revolution of Indian women wrestlers starting with his own family with his own daughters and nieces. The Phogat Sisters are an acclaimed group of cousins who are the top creme of Indian wrestling.
Let's take a look at all the female wrestlers from the highly acclaimed Phogat family:
Geeta Phogat
Geeta Phogat is best known for winning the first-ever gold medal for India at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. She also is the first women freestyle wrestler to have qualified for the Olympics in 2012.
The eldest daughter of the Dronacharya Awardee, Mahavir Singh Phogat, Geeta has also gone on to bag the bronze medal 2012 World Wrestling Championship. She repeated the feat in the 2015 World Wrestling Championship by bagging the bronze medal yet again in the 59kg freestyle category.
Babita Kumari
Babita Kumari is the younger sister of Geeta Phogat and has bagged the gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth games. She went on to win the silver medals in the 2010 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and also bagged the bronze at the 2012 World Wrestling Championship in 51kg freestyle category before joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019.
Ritu Phogat
Ritu is the third daughter of Mahavir Singh Phogat and is currently signed as a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter with the ONE Championship. She has won the gold medal at the 2016 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship in the 48kg category. Ritu also bagged INR 36 Lakh as the most expensive female wrestler at the 2016 Pro Wrestling League.
Sangeeta Phogat
Sangeeta is the youngest of the Phogat sisters and competes in the 59kg freestyle category. She is in the initial years of her Wrestling career and has only won the silver medal in the National Championships. She recently tied the knot with one of India's finest freestyle wrestlers, Bajrang Punia.
Vinesh Phogat
Vinesh is the cousin of Geeta, Babita, and the other two Phogat siblings. She is the first Indian women to have won the gold medals in the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and Asian games in 2018.
Vinesh is also the first Indian athlete to have been nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2019. She also managed to win the bronze medal in the 2019 World Wrestling Championships before being awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2020. She has won 4 gold medals in 2021 — heading to the Tokyo Olympics and can easily be touted as the 'best' when it comes to wrestling among Phogat sisters.
Priyanka Phogat
Priyanka is the sibling of Vinesh Phogat and the niece of Mahavir Singh Phogat. Priyanka has won the silver medal in the 2016 Asian Wrestling Championships in Bangkok and also bagged INR 7 Lakh contract in the Pro Wrestling League back in 2015.
