Paris Olympics 2024: Reetika Hooda Suffers Defeat in Quarterfinal Of 76kg Freestyle Wrestling Against Aiperi Medet Kyzy

New Delhi: Indian wrestler Reetika Hooda faced an unfortunate  defeat against top-seeded Kyrgyzstan’s  Aiperi Medet Kyzy in the quarterfinal of the Women’s 76kg wrestling event at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Saturday, August 11.

Reetika Hooda still has a lifeline to win a bronze medal through the repechage round if Aiperi Medet Kyzy reaches the final. In the Paris Olympics, earlier, Reetika made a strong start, defeating Bernadett Nagy of Hungary by technical superiority 12-2.

The fantastic journey of Reetika included making history as the first Indian woman to win gold at the U-23 World Championships last year when she defeated USA’s Kennedy Blades, who went on to make the USA Olympic team. She also boasts of bronzes at the senior Asian Championships and Under-20 World Championships in 72kg.

Notably, Reetika graduated from the 72kg category to the 76kg weight division, which is on the Olympic roster. The jump came after years of fighting in the lower division, and the fact that she often trains with male wrestlers at akharas is down to a lack of female sparring partners at her level in the country.

In the other big development, Aman Sehrawat won India’s first wrestling medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Friday. The 23-year-old took bronze with a convincing 13-5 win over Darian Cruz of Puerto Rico. That took India’s overall medal tally to six, one less than the count of seven won at Tokyo 2020.