Bharatpur: Fighting against her father's disapproval, a girl from a village in Jaipur has established her name in the field of wrestling through sheer hardwork and determination. What came as a blessing was the consistent support of her mother, who went out to mortgage her ornaments to fund for her training. Presently, she has several medals of international, national and state levels to her credit.
Since childhood, Suman Sharma, a resident of Fatehpura village in Jaipur was interested in sports. However, her father, Ramniwas Sharma, a businessman always pushed her to excel in academics so that she could get herself a government job. After passing school, Suman took admission in a college in Jaipur. It was then that she tried her luck in wrestling and started participating in college games.
Things were going fine till her father learnt that she was participating in wrestling events at college. Ramniwas believed that wrestling was a sports meant for boys and tried hard to convince her not to proceed in this field. However, by that time Suman had realised that wrestling was what attracted her the most and gave her both happiness and satisfaction.
Hailing from a joint family, Suman faced a lot of opposition at home. She said whenever she returned to her village during college vacations, people used to taunt her. Fighting against her own people seemed to be the most challenging task for her, she said.
It was then that her mother, Vimala Devi, a homemaker, lent her whole-hearted support to her daughter. "My mother believed in my dreams and supported me in every way she could," Suman said.
Suman said she decided to join a training institute in Haryana but her father was unhappy at her. In order to fund her training, it was Suman's mother who mortgaged her ornaments.
"I worked very hard in Haryana, spending long hours in the training sessions. Finally, when I reached my village for the first time after winning a state-level medal, my neighbours and relatives gave me a grand welcome. After this, my father's anger also vanished and he slowly started supporting me," she said.
Suman said she started wrestling in 2016 and since then, has won around 30 medals at state-level and national-level competitions. In 2023, she won a silver medal at the World Wrestling Championship in Russia, bringing glory to her parents and country. Now Suman wants to win an Olympics medal.
She had recently come to Bharatpur to participate at the All India Maharani Kishori Mahila Kushti Dangal. On Sunday, Suman won the Rajasthan Kesari match. Earlier, she also won a gold medal in the Rajasthan State-Level Senior Women-Men Wrestling Championship held in Bharatpur.
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