Personal Information
Full Name | Deepak Punia |
Date of Birth | May 19, 1999 |
Nationality | Indian |
Height | 1.73 m |
Role | Men’s Freestyle 86 kg |
Deepak Punia: A Brief Biography
Sport | Wrestling |
Category | Freestyle |
Weight | 86kg |
State | Haryana |
Medal Record | |
2019 Wrestling Championship | Silver |
2020 Asian Championship | Bronze |
2019 Asian Championships | Bronze |
Deepak Punia is an Indian wrestler born on 19th May 1999. He hails from Chhara village of Jhajjar district in Haryana. He represents India in the 86 kg Heavyweight category at international competitions.
Deepak Punia - Early Life, Family & Background
Deepak Punia was born to Shubhash Punia and Krishna Punia. He comes from a humble family background residing in Chhara village. His father, Shubhash, is a former wrestler and a milkman.
Deepak was introduced to wrestling by his father when he was 4-year-old. While growing up, he had watched several local mud wrestling in his village of Chhara. He comes from a village that’s well known for mud wrestling. His cousin, Sunil Kumar, older to him, is a popular name in the local dangal (wrestling) circuit and Deepak would often escort his cousin to the village wrestling arena.
After watching some of the wrestlings in his village, Deepak participated in local wrestling and began to earn. Since his father, a milkman, struggled to make ends meet, Deepak decided to load off the burden from family and help them financially by earning in local wrestling tournaments. Deepak’s wrestling talent was spotted by Virendra Singh at the school nationals and urged him to join the Chhatrasal Arena to further his career.
In 2015, Deepak moved to Delhi and enrolled in Chhatrasal Arena. He began to hone his wrestling skills by training under the coaches at the academy. Olympic Medalist Sushil Kumar is his biggest supporter. He dissuaded him from taking the Sepoy post in the Indian Army, instead he advised him to focus on his career and foster the skills.
Deepak Punia Biography
After honing the wrestling skills under the tutelage of the coaches at Chhatrasal Arena, Deepak Punia’s career began to take off, thanks to the persuasion by Virendra Singh, one of the coaches in Chhatrasal Arena.
Deepak competed and won medals in state competitions, junior and senior nationals before making his mark on an international stage at the age of 18.
In 2016, Punia won his first international medal by clinching Gold at the World Cadet Championship held at Tbilisi in Georgia. In 2018, Deepak Punia was picked by Haryana Hammers to represent them in the Pro Wrestling League.
Earlier in 2021, Deepak Punia participated in the Rome Ranking Series in Italy but lost to Ethan Adrian Ramos in the 1st Round.
Deepak Punia Achievements
Deepak Punia participated in the 2018 Asian Junior Wrestling Championship and won the Gold medal in the 86 kg heavyweight category held in New Delhi. In the same year, he competed at the World Junior Wrestling Championship at Trnava in Slovakia, where he won a Silver medal in the 86 kg heavyweight category.
In 2019, Deepak won a Bronze medal at the Asian Wrestling Championship. In the same year, he made the headlines in the national media after he won the historic Gold medal in the 86 kg heavyweight category at the World Junior Wrestling Championship in Tallinn, Estonia. This achievement earned him overnight fame. Also, he won a Silver medal in the 86 kg heavyweight at the 2019 World Wrestling Championship at Nur-Sultan in Kazakhstan.
In 2020, he won a Bronze medal at the Asian Wrestling Championship. Deepak Punia secured his Olympics berth at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics after entering the semi-finals of the 2019 World Wrestling Championship. Considering his early success on an international stage, Deepak is seen as one of the strong medal prospects in wrestling.