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Rio Olympics 2016: Sakshi Malik Medal Moment

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    India's Sakshi Malik poses with her bronze medal

    It is India's 25th medal at the Olympic Games since independence in 1947.

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik poses with her bronze medal at Rio

    Sakshi, who began training when she was 12, now stands as an icon for Indian women's athletes and what makes her story even more remarkable is where she comes from.

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Bronze medal winner India's Sakshi Malik celebrates with other medal winners at the victory ceremony of the women's wrestling freestyle ...

    Her bronze medal is a major victory over sexism in one of India's most conservative states, Haryana.

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Bronze medal winner India's Sakshi Malik celebrates with other medal winners at the victory ceremony

    Sakshi was one of three female wrestlers to qualify for the Rio Olympics

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik admires her bronze medal

    hailing from the north Indian state where women have long been treated as second-class citizens and 'honour killings' and sex-selective abortions are rife

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik is presented bronze medal at the victory ceremony

    In the build-up to the Summer Games, Sakshi had recalled in an interview some of the instances when villagers had sniggered and pointed fingers when she wrestled with boys

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik pose during the medals ceremony

    wore shorts in a state where women are usually covered head-to-toe and confined to their homes.

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik poses with her bronze medal for the women's wrestling freestyle 58-kg competition

    According to Sakshi, locals used to berate her parents when she was growing up

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik poses with her bronze medal for the women's wrestling

    "It hurt a little and I wondered why people said such mean things, especially when I was so young, and made me doubt myself," Sakshi Malik

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik poses with her bronze medal

    Haryana is renowned for its male-dominated village councils which control life in the largely farming region, issuing diktats to prevent women defying conservative norms

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik receiving bronze medal at the vectory ceremony in the women's wrestling freestyle 58-kg competition

    Sakshi Malik receiving bronze medal at the vectory ceremony in the women's wrestling freestyle 58-kg competition

  • Sakshi Malik, Rio Olympics 2016, bronze medal, women's wrestling, medals ceremony
    Sakshi Malik with her coach Kuldeep Singh, celebrates after winning bronze

    Haryana has the worst sex ratio in the country, with 877 women for every 1,000 men, against the national figure of 940, according to the last official census of 2011.

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