He started wrestling at the age of seven after being pursued by his father Balwan Singh Punia. it was his friend cum guru the famous wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt who has always supported him. He has been training him since childhood and always available for any professional and personal advice. Bajrang's journey started in 2006 in the field of wrestling when he started going to the stadium to learn this sport professionally. He did his initial training in Chhatrasal Stadium under the guidance of his coach Shri Mahabaleshwar Pal. In 2014, he joined Yogeshwar Academy and since then he never backed down. He has been through a wonderful journey with so many medals in a very small time.

Former World No.1 and 3x World medalist, Bajrang has proved to be one of the finest freestyle wrestlers in the country with multiple medals at the continental level as well. He will be No. 2 seed going to the Tokyo Olympics and is definitely a medal prospect in the 65kg category.

Role of JSW

Bajrang has been a regular visitor at the Inspire Institute of Sport since 2018, with IIS providing him a full-time physiotherapist, foreign exposure and training partners to help him work on his technique and training regimen ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

Personal Info

• Age: 26
• Hometown: Jhajjar, Haryana
• Playing Level: Senior
• Weight Class: 65kg
• Padma Shri Award: 2019
• Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award: 2019

Neeraj Chopra, India’s finest javelin thrower, is living a dream he never dreamt. The reigning Asian and Commonwealth Games champion grew up in Khandra village in Haryana’s Panipat district, and hadn’t even seen a javelin as a kid let alone harbour any ambitions of one day becoming a world champion in the discipline.

At the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships in Poland, an 18-year-old Neeraj changed the course of his life while inspiring scores of youngsters in India to pick up the 800-gram spear. The 86.48m throw, in his second attempt, bagged India’s first-ever gold at a world-level competition and also rewrote the U-20 World Record. Those days are long behind the 22-year-old, a true Olympic medal prospect, who has set his eyes on the elusive 90m mark.

Chopra won gold at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, where he established a new Indian national record of 88.06m and served as the opening ceremony's flag bearer. He has since broken his personal record, throwing 88.07m in early March at the Indian Grand Prix 3 in Patiala this year. In addition to the Asian Games, He won gold at three competitions in 2018, including the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia, the Sotteville Athletics Meet in France, and the Savo Games in Finland. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, awarded Neeraj Chopra with the Arjuna Award in 2018.

Neeraj Chopra serves as a Junior Commissioned Officer in the Indian armed services when he is not competing.

Personal Info

• Age: 23
• Hometown: Khandra, Haryana
• Event: Javelin Throw
• Arjuna Award: 2018
• Playing Level: Senior
• Personal Best: 88.07m (National Record)

Vikas was only 10 when he joined the Bhiwani Boxing Club in the year 2003 and after this, he received his training from the Army Institute. He prematurely exited from Olympics of 2012 in order to complete his studies from the Kurukshetra University and also focus on his training of the Haryana State Police. He currently serves as a DSP in the Haryana Police department.

Vikas debuted as a professional boxer in the year 2010 and he claimed gold in the Asian Youth Boxing Championships. He also won gold in the Youth World Amateur Boxing Championships which was held at Baku in the year 2010. He also won a bronze medal at the Summer Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

He is the First Indian boxer to win medals at all the ‘BIG 4’: Asian and Commonwealth Games, Asian and World Championships and second Indian boxer to qualify for three Olympics. He is also the first and only Indian boxer to be a 3-time Asian Games medalist.

Role of JSW

Vikas has been associated with JSW for the longest time now, he has been training under IIS Head Coach Ronald Simms Jr. over the past 2 years in preparation for the Olympics and has been to IIS several times with Indian Elite Men's team as part of the National camp held at the Institute.

Personal Info

• Age: 29
• Hometown: Hisar, Haryana
• Weight: 69kg
• Class: Welterweight
• Also known as: 'The Indian Tank'
• Arjun Awardee: 2012
• Turned Professional: 2018

Born in a family of wrestlers, Seema Bisla was destined to pick up the sport. She is the youngest of four sisters. Bisla grew up in Gudhan village in the Rohtak district of Haryana. Even at an early age, Bisla’s talent was there for everyone to see. She won the gold medal at the Cadet National Wrestling Championships. A bronze medal soon followed in her first international tournament, the 2008 Asian Championship.

The suitable weight category to participate was a constant struggle for Seema, she almost quit the sport after not being able to participate in a single senior tournament for 4 years. Railways coach Paramjit Singh advised her to hold off her decision. She started training under him and went on to win her first senior title in the 53kg division in 2017 and again in 2018.

She finally found some success in the 50kg category. Losses at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships and 2021 Asian Olympics Qualification would serve to be a part of the learning curve. Each defeat gave her the opportunity to erase her flaws and she did just that. Earlier in 2021 she claimed the bronze medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan and then came the tournament which changed her life forever, the World Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Sofia, Bulgaria is where Bisla would show her true colours. A gold medal win ensured a berth at the Tokyo Olympics and it just goes onto show how far she has come.

Personal Info

• Age: 29
• Hometown: Rohtak, Haryana
• Playing Level: Senior
• Weight Class: 50kg

Avinash Sable comes from a family of farmers. He is an Armyman. He joined the 5 Mahar regiment of the Indian Army after completing his 12th Grade. He was being posted at the Siachen Glacier in 2013–2014, deserts of north-western Rajasthan, followed by Sikkim from 2015. From age six, he would run or walk the 6 km (3.7 mi) distance between home and school as there was no transport facility in his village.

He first took part in inter-army cross country running in 2015 at the insistence of his colleagues, before switching to steeplechase under trainer Amrish Kumar. He then went to win multiple medals at the National and Continental level, shattering National records time and again.

He qualified for Tokyo Olympics in the men's 3000m steeplechase event by shattering his own national record twice in three days though he finished 13th in the final race of the World Championships in Doha in 2019. Avinash clocked 8 minutes 21.37 seconds to breach the Olympics qualifying standard of 8:22.00. He bettered his personal best and rewrote the national record yet again in men's 3000m steeplechase to win the gold medal at the 24th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships in Patiala in March 2021. He clocked a time of 8:20.20 in Patiala, which is now the National Record.

Personal Info

• Age: 26
• Event: 3000m Steeplechase
• Playing Level: Senior
• Personal Best: 8:20.20 (National Record)

Born in a family of Track and Field athletes, Sreeshankar also started with Athletics and was a state-level under-10 champion in 50 metres and 100 metres, but switched from sprinting to long jump at the age of 13. He is coached by his father S. Murali who is a former triple jump athlete and silver medalist at the South Asian Games.

In March 2018, Sreeshankar cleared a 7.99 m jump at the Federation Cup in Patiala. He was named in the Indian contingent for the 2018 Commonwealth Games but had to pull out 10 days before the April event after being diagnosed with appendicitis. Making a comeback, Sreeshankar broke the national record at the National Open Athletics Championship in September 2018, where he achieved a jump of 8.20 metres. It was also the world leading jump of the season among under-20 athletes and made him the first Indian athlete to qualify for the 2019 World Athletics Championships.

Apart from being good on the track, his performance off the track has been equally good. He secured A+ in all subjects in the CBSE Class X examination and 96% in the 12th CBSE Board Examination.

He secured his Olympic berth with a leap of 8.26m at the 2021 Senior Federation Cup in Patiala, bettering his own National record of 8.20m and is now eyeing a medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

Personal Info

• Age: 22
• Event: Long Jump
• Playing Level: Senior
• Personal Best: 8.26m (National Record)

Hailing from a small village of Bahadurpur in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh, Annu's father is a farmer, and she has four elder siblings. The start was not easy for Annu as she had to overcome multiple hurdles to become what she is now. Despite the many challenges that came her way, Annu was determined to follow through. The support of her family and her school coach Dharampal Ji helped her continue forward. When the school refused to let her borrow javelins as she would often break them, Dharampal Ji would buy her bamboo and sugarcane as javelins to practice.

Annu has achieved several feats, including becoming the first Indian to reach the finals of javelin throw at the IAAF World Athletics Championship in October 2019, and becoming the only Indian women to cross the 60m-mark in Javelin. She has also broken the national record at least three times and performed better than world record holders and Olympic medallists in recent competitions. Her performances have even earned her an officer rank job with the Indian Railways.

With these and many more achievements, Annu now has her eyes set on the Olympics medal. She qualified for the Tokyo Olympics by virtue of her World Ranking of 18.

Personal Info

• Age: 29
• Hometown: Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
• Event: Javelin Throw
• Playing Level: Senior
• Personal Best: 63.24m (National Record)

Ashish Kumar comes from a family of boxers. Kumar’s father was a national-level Kabaddi player and a farmer. Ashish made a foray into boxing after he was inspired by his three elder brothers and cousin pursuing the sport. His cousin is a national boxing champion. Kumar wanted to make a career in sports, but he had to choose between wrestling and boxing, so he picked the latter. Ashish took up boxing at the age of 14 and started training at the Sundarnagar Boxing Academy. At the age of 16, he had shifted to Bhiwani, a hometown of Olympic Bronze medalist Vijender Singh, to focus on his training seriously.

After multiple National medals at the Junior and Youth level, Ashish won his first international medal at the Thailand Open in 2019, where he won gold. This also helped him book a berth at the 2019 World Championships. Ashish Kumar made his Asian Boxing Championships debut in 2019 and won a Silver in the 75kg Middleweight category.

In 2020, he lost his father just a month prior to the Olympic qualifiers but that didn’t stop him. He qualified for his debut Olympics after he reached the semi-finals of the 2020 Asia and Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Amman, Jordan.

Role of JSW

Ashish has been associated with JSW since 2019 and since then we have been supporting him in his training, foreign exposure and he has been a regular visitor to IIS for training and with the National team.

Personal Info

• Age: 26
• Hometown: Mandi, Himachal Pradesh
• Weight: 75kg
• Class: Middleweight

Hailing from Manipur, Sushila Devi is a silver-medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games at Glasgow and a multiple-time Asian medalist where she prevailed in the 48kg category. She recently qualified for her maiden Games at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 in Japan via the continental quota. She is the only Indian judoka at the Tokyo Olympics and accompanying her will be IIS Senior Judo coach Jiwan Sharma.

She will be the only Indian judoka to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

She has been part of the IIS Judo Program since November 2020 and was training under Head coach Mamuka Kizilashvili and Jiwan Sharma at the Institute. Her training program was set up by the IIS experts focusing on the Olympics. Her journey in Judo has been tough, she suffered depression after not being able to play at the 2018 Asian Games due to an injury but the Olympics made her to comeback and represent the country again.

Personal Info

• Age: 26
• Hometown: Manipur
• Playing Level: Senior
• Weight Class: 48kg