Born on January 1, 1994, Pooja Dhanda is an Indian wrestler who has proved to be an inspiration to many with her impeccable achievements. Hailing from Hisar in Haryana, Pooja is the daughter of a tractor driver with Haryana Animal Husbandry Center in the district. Haryana has produced many wrestling stalwarts including the Phogat sisters. She started off as a judoka player at Mahabir Stadium but switched to wrestling in 2009. As the Indian wrestler turns a year older we shall have a look at six quick facts about the Indian wrestler. Pooja Dhanda Settles for Silver Medal in Women's Freestyle 57 kg Wrestling Event at CWG 2018.

  • Pooja was quite an athlete from an early age. She would for long runs in the countryside with her father and was an aspiring Marathon running enthusiast. So he had a keen interest in sports.

  • She competed at national and international competitions since quite a young age. Pooja even several national and three international medals in judo and was even picked for the Asian Championships and this was the turning point of her life.

  • During the Championship in 2009, she met  Kripa Shankar Bishnoi who actually convinced her to take up wrestling as a career.  Her body structure was and talent suited wrestling much more than judo and got success in the following year.

  • Pooja won a silver medal in the  60kg category at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore.

  • In 2014 she won the gold at the Commonwealth Championships in 2013 and winning a bronze medal at the 2014 Asian Championships.

  • Owing to her features and amazing voice modulation abilities, she almost made it to Aamir Khan's blockbuster movie 'Dangal' for the role Babita Phogat. But had to pull out from the film owing to an injury.

That's all we have for now. if you think that we have missed out on any interesting fact, feel free to add on in the comments section. Coming back to Pooja's birthday, we wish her a very Happy Birthday!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 01, 2021 09:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).