Rio 2016: Sakshi Malik becomes first female among four Indian wrestlers to win Olympic medal

India's quest for its first medal at the Rio Olympics finally came to an end with Sakshi Malik clinching a Bronze in women's wrestling.

Wrestler Sakshi Malik today beat Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan in Women's Freestyle 58 kg Bronze medal match to finally open India's account at the ongoing Rio Olympics 2016. (RIO 2016 FULL COVERAGE)

The medal certainly didn't come easily for the Haryana wrestler as she had to fight all three bouts within a gap of a few hours in between. She was trailing 0-5 after the first period but bounced back superbly in the second period to clinch an 8-5 win over her opponent. (Wrestler Sakshi Malik gives India first medal in Rio Olympics 2016)

Earlier, Sakshi had defeated Sweden's Malin Johanna Mattson 5-4 in the qualification match to progress into the pre-quarters, where she outclassed Moldova's Mariana Esanu Cherdivara on a four point take down criteria to enter the quarter-finals. She lost 2-9 to Russia's Valeria Koblova in the last-8 encounter but stayed in contention for the bronze via Repechage as Valeria made it to the final.

In the repechage round 2 she completely overpowered Orkhon Purevdorj and won 12-3 against the Mongolian wrestler before beating Aisuluu in the bronze medal match. (Rio Olympics 2016, Day 12: Live Updates)

Sakshi's medal is the fifth for India in wrestling and the first by a female wrestler. She is also the fourth woman after Karnam Malleswari (Weightlifting), Mary Kom (Boxing) and Saina Nehwal (Badminton) to win an Olympic medal for India. (‘It took a woman athlete to slap Shobha De'. Twitter hails Sakshi Malik after Bronze medal)

Meanwhile, here's a look at the other four occasions when wrestlers won a medal for India at the Olympics.

KHASHABA DADASAHEB JADHAV – Bronze (1952 Helsinki Olympics)

Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the first wrestler to win a medal in the Games for India – a bronze at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Jadhav, who died in 1984 aged 58, was one of India's first individual Olympic medallists.

Khashaba competed in the bantamweight category (57kg) in Helsinki and went on to defeat wrestlers from countries like Mexico, Germany and Canada, before losing his semi-final bout to Japan's Shohachi Ishii. But he bounced back to win the bronze medal in the Repechage round.

Khashaba was the one who brought wrestling to the forefront in the country as India would only win gold medals in field hockey before that in the Olympics.

SUSHIL KUMAR – Bronze (2008 Beijing Olympics)

India's long wait for a medal in wrestling, an immensly popular and ancient sport in the northern parts of the country, finally ended after a gap of 56 years when Sushil Kumar won a Bronze medal at the Summer Games in 2008.

Sushil had lost his 66kg freestyle first round bout against Ukraine's Andriy Stadnik and was relegated to repechage as a result. He then fought three fights within a span of 70 minutes to clinch his first medal at the Olympics.

Sushil first defeated American Doug Schwab and then overpowered Albert Batryov from Belarus in the second round. In the bronze medal match, Sushil fought against Leonid Spiridonov from Kazakhstan and won the bout 3-1 to clinch the bronze medal.

The Summer Games in London brought India a total of six medals, there most successful campaign so far. Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, who finished 9th in the 2008 Beijing Games, clinched a bronze medal for India in the men's 60kg freestyle category.

Yogeshwar was knocked out in the pre-quarterfinals by B Kudukhov of Russia, who then reached the finals, thus relegating the Indian to the repechage rounds.

Yogeshwar defeated Puerto Rico's Franklin Gomez (1-0, 1-0) and Masoud Esmaeilpour (3-1 aggregate) of Iran in the first two rounds respectively. In the bronze medal match, North Korea's Ri Jong Myong proved no match for Yogeshwar, who won the bout with scores of 0-1, 1-0, 6-0, the final round ending in just 1:02 minutes. His finishing move, an alligator role, in the final round is still etched in the memory of every Indian.

SUSHIL KUMAR – Silver (2012 London Olympics)

Sushil Kumar brought more glory for the sport as went on to win a Silver medal at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Sushil's road to the final included comfortable wins over Ramazan Sahin (Turkey), Ikhtiyor Navruzov (Uzbekistan) and Akzhurek Tanatarov (Kazakhstan). In the final Sushil came up against Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan, who beat the Indian 1-0, 3-1 to clinch the gold medal.

Sushil lost the final bout but entered the history books as he became the first and the only Indian to win two individual Olympic medals.

However, India's campign in Rio has been disappointing with shooting, tennis and boxing stars failing to live up to the expectations.