Geeta Phogat

Who is Geeta Phogat?

Geeta Phogat is a female wrestler from India who won India's first ever gold medal in women's wrestling in the 55 kg freestyle category at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

She comes from a Hindu Jat family of Balali village in Bhiwani district, Haryana. Her father Mahavir Singh, a former wrestler himself, is also her coach.

She had earlier won gold in the 2009 Commonwealth Wrestling Championship. She qualified for the 2012 London Olympics but could not win a medal. She was trained by O.P. Yadav at Patiala.

She is the first-ever Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Olympics. Phogat won a gold medal in the Wrestling FILA Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament that concluded at Almaty, Kazakhstan in April 2012. She has undergone rigorous training at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala, under the guidance of chief coach O.P. Yadav and foreign expert Ryan Dobo. She has numerous other international medals to her credit, including three consecutive medals in the Asian Cadet Championships in 2003, 2004 and 2005.