The first woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal in India’s history – Sakshi Malik will be the flag bearer for the Indian brigade at the 2016 Rio Olympics closing ceremony to be held at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
P V Sindhu, the only other Indian to have reached the podium at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, had departed for Hyderabad on Saturday. On Sunday evening, soon after the early elimination of London 2012 Bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt happened, the announcement of was made by Rakesh Gupta, chef de mission of India’s Olympic contingent.
At a time when the sporting nation was reeling under a terrible run of form that saw its biggest medal contenders fail in their respective disciplines on the Olympic platform, a hard-fought bronze clinched by Sakshi in the 58 kg category of Women’s Freestyle wrestling lifted the spirits by breathing new life into the Indian campaign as we approached the last leg of this year’s edition of the Summer Games.
What looked set to be a medal-less Olympics for India for the first time since 1992 Barcelona received a delightful turnaround within a span of 24 hours when ace shuttler PV Sindhu followed up Sakshi’s accomplishment by confirming her podium finish on the very next day, downing Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the semi-finals of Women’s singles badminton.
Below are the excerpts from Mr. Gupta’s comments on the medal winning Indians at Rio, as reported by PTI: "Sakshi and Sindhu have been the medallists for us and both displayed immense courage and determination during their competitions.
Sakshi started the account for us and later Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal. Sindhu, in fact came close to making it a gold. Both Sakshi and Sindhu are young and have many more Olympic Games ahead of them, we can look forward to even greater performances from them.
These young ladies have been an inspiration for all women in India and I am sure many more will follow them."
The gala event will commence from 04:30 AM (IST) at the Maracana Stadium where the Olympic flame will be extinguished in the presence of eminent personalities like IOC president Thomas Bach and possibly the football legend Pele, before signing off for a four-year wait till the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games.
