Wrestler Nisha’s rise from darkness: From being bizarrely declared dead and facing doping ban to finally being pulled out of ass each step Sakshi Malik | Sport-others News

Before Friday, the night she won a Paris Olympics quota, when Nisha Dahiya last hit the headlines, it was to let the world know she wasn’t dead.Late one evening in November 2021, news began to trickle out in the wrestling circuit that a young woman named Nisha had been shot dead at
an akhara in Sonepat. Within minutes, photos of Nisha Dahiya flooded the internet. Above it, a hashtag: ‘RIP’.
On Monday, two days after she sealed an Olympic berth for the country in the 68 kg category at the World Qualifiers, Nisha doesn’t dwell much on the time when she had to read her own obits during the bizarre case of maken identity, when another unfortunate wrestler lost her life.
But she can’t stop talking about the one person who issued statements and made videos to debunk the fake news of her demise – Sakshi Malik. Sakshi would also stand her during the tougher challenges that followed.
In 2016, after she won the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics, Sakshi broke the proverbial glass ceiling for women wrestlers in India. For Nisha, she became a lifelong ally, sparring partner, roommate at national camps and a mentor.
“She came into my life at a time when I needed someone to show me the way; to show what’s right and wrong,” Nisha tells The Indian Express from anbul, where the qualifying tournament took place.
Nisha was in Class 8 when she left her home in Adiana, Panipat, to pursue a career in wrestling. After a brief stay in Nidani, she moved to Rohtak in 2015 and joined an akhara run Sakshi’s father-in-law. From that moment on, Nisha has spent a large part of her life doing everything Sakshi does.
“Discipline, rehna, khana, peena. (Way of living, eating, drinking.) Her nature is so good that I became kinder,” she gushes. Even the way Nisha wrestles is modelled on her idol – aggressive with a deadly double-leg attack that’s Sakshi’s signature move.
A jestful, two-year-old reel, barely five seconds long, captures their bonding. Nisha has the camera zoomed in on her when a voice says, ‘Akela thodi hoon’. She then pans towards Sakshi, walking two paces behind her, as the voiceover goes, ‘mushkilein hai mere saath.’ Sakshi playfully hits her and they both laugh.
Indeed, Nisha’s path to Paris, if she wins domestic selection trials likely next month, has been strewn with challenges: a dope ban, a bout of Covid that dashed her Tokyo Olympics hopes and injuries. And Sakshi, almost unfailingly, has been her guardian angel.
On Nisha’s path to Paris, Sakshi Malik, almost unfailingly, has been her guardian angel. (Sakshi Malik on Instagram)
Her biggest setback came in 2017 when she was banned from competing at any level of the sport after being caught using a performance-enhancing drug. Nisha says it happened ‘unknowingly’ using a substance she was told would help her reduce weight so that she remained eligible to compete in her weight category, which was 57 kg back then.
”My friend’s brother suggested I take an injection. If it was something to eat, it was fine but when you have to inject something into your body, you have your doubts. I asked him again and again if he was sure that it didn’t contain any prohibited substance. He assured me there was nothing to worry about. Even his ser took it. But unfortunately, on the day the dope officers came to collect our samples, she had gone home and I stayed back,” Nisha says.
Initially, she was banned for four years which was reduced to two after an appeal. The stigma, Nisha says, was too hard to deal with. She considered quitting wrestling. “My tau (uncle) worked in the Income Tax department so I thought I’d study and do something like that. But my family didn’t let me quit wrestling.”
And in Sakshi, she got ‘unwavering support’. “Mentally, more than anything,” Nisha says. “She didn’t stop training with me. Taught new techniques and moves, counselled me and made sure that in those two years, the toughest phase of my life, I didn’t give up,” Nisha says.
They spoke endlessly after training, sometimes late into the evenings. Sakshi, the senior pro who had experienced the uncertainties of a sporting career, would share her learnings.
Keep training
“She told me, ‘Whenever we are worried, when we cry, struggle, get tired or angry… the day we win a medal, it will all feel worth it. Just close your eyes and continue to train’. What she said really hit me and gave me the strength to endure those times.”
Nisha’s suspension period ended in 2019. Since then, she’s remained the undisputed national champion in the 68 kg weight class but could not go to the next level.
In 2021, when she had a chance to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, she was down with Covid-19 and could not compete in the qualifiers. She then lost in the selection trials for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and when she made it to the team for the Asiad last year, Nisha suffered a collarbone injury in her first-round bout.
2023 was also the year when her wrestling association with Sakshi ended. “Because of the protests, Sakshi di stopped training. From the time I started wrestling properly, I had been with her all the time. She would travel to Rohtak specially to train me but I was more used to her as a sparring partner. I missed that,” she says.

So, Nisha moved her base from Rohtak to Vijaynagar where she now trains under Iranian coach Amir Tavakolian, who competed at the Sydney Olympics, at the Inspire Institute of Sports.
It has opened her eyes to new, more modern training methods. But at the core, she remains a wrestler in ‘Sakshi’s mould’ with her words of wisdom still ringing in her ears. But Nisha isn’t happy or satisfied merely with a quota.
”Right now, my only focus is the Olympics. I have struggled a lot for this,” she says. “This is my time.”