Becoming a household name after Amir Khan starrer movie “Dangal” rolled on silver screen, senior Indian wrestler Geeta Phogat says the dazzle of a Bollywood blockbuster on her life took away her focus from the sport and now she is trying to recover back to step on the mat. She also blamed her injuries to sideline her from the action.
Dangal beautifully portrayed the story and struggle of 2010 Commonwealth gold medallist Geeta Phogat and three time Commonwealth games medallist Babita Phogat.
Speaking from the sidelines of the launch of JSW’s inspire institute of sports event at Vijaynagar, Babita said”I think staying away from wrestling for two years with injury and the movie, I lost my focus. Now I am concentrating just on wrestling,”
About her comeback
“My comeback on the mat hasn’t been good. I am training hard to get back into the team. No sport is easy, if you spend time away it will be difficult to make a comeback,” she said.
Speaking about Indian women’s wrestlers chances at the Asian games, she said that this time the girls will return with more medals. Four years ago in Incheon, Indian women wrestlers returned back with two medals.
She said both the men’s and women’s team have been impressive in the recent while and their confidence level is very high for the Asian sporting extravaganza.
Geeta also praised her sister Vinesh, who recently won gold medals at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and Grand Prix of Spain to take the winning momentum to Asian games.
“Her confidence level is the highest among all wrestlers. She is very focussed on training. She makes videos of herself training, analyses them, analyses her opponents. Recently in Spain not only did she win, she beat her opponent 10-0,” she said.
Mindset of Indian wrestlers has changes- Geeta
“The mindset has changed now everyone goes with the aim of winning a medal, they believe they can win, earlier that wasn’t the case.
“We have regularly won medals at all tournaments and I think after ‘Dangal’, the craze for wrestling increased among the girls. Then Sakshi’s medal definitely boosted the confidence,” Geeta said
