CHENNAI: Year 2023 turned out to be the worst phase in the life of Indian woman wrestler Anshu Malik. The 2021 World Championships silver medallist not only suffered big setbacks on the wrestling mat but also encountered a personal trauma which turned her world upside down. A fake vulgar video started doing the rounds soon after Anshu lost a bout during the selection trials held to pick up the Indian team for the Asian Games last year.

Such was the impact of it that the Haryana grappler even contemplated quitting the sport. “The year 2023 can be said to be the worst phase in my life as I faced a lot of adversities during that period,” Anshu, who is managed by IOS Sports and Entertainment, told this daily.

She lost faith in everything including the Almighty. “At one point of time, I even thought about quitting wrestling. I lost faith in everything including God. But my family and a few people, who hold a special place in my life, stood by me like a rock and motivated me to deal with the situation and keep striving hard. They gave me strength and then I thought my story cannot end like this. I have to leave these obstacles behind. I might have failed to make it to the Asian Games but I can still earn a quota for the Paris Olympics. So I decided to continue preparing for the qualifiers,” added Anshu, who also competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

It was not easy as Anshu not only had to deal with off the mat issues but also the injuries which have forced her to skip important international events one after the other. She could feature only in the Senior Asian Championships in 2023 where she bagged bronze. But the goal was pretty clear and a plan was chalked out to achieve it. She missed the 2023 World Championships thus a chance to secure the Paris Games quota by finishing on the podium.

Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan was scheduled to hold the next qualifying event, the Asian Olympic Games Qualifier, and Anshu made sure she was more than ready for the battle. She came out with all guns blazing as the wrestler registered emphatic wins in the qualifier to reach the final and secure an Olympic quota in the 57kg weight category on April 20. As per the criteria, finalists of the event were eligible for Olympic quotas in their respective weight categories.