2023 was a truly memorable year for Indian sport. With so much having happened, ESPN India picks ten images that tell the story of the most stunning moments we witnessed over the year. Our tenth and final pick is a moment when India's champion wrestlers were pinned down on the road by the police during their protests.
Vinesh Phogat and Sangeeta Phogat on the road, arms clasped around each other. Sangeeta on her back, Vinesh on top of her, shielding her from the police personnel in flak jackets and boots. The flag of the Republic of India on a stick, in their hands, on the road.
It feels like an age ago, in a long-forgotten time when India hadn't won 107 medals at the Asian Games, when Indian sports wasn't a carnival of optimism and gold-winning, history-making brilliance.
On May 28, 2023, the Prime Minister of the country led the inauguration of the new Parliament building in New Delhi. A few roads down, India's greatest wrestlers were marching in protest against a man who was one of the reported attendees at the inauguration: former Wrestling Federation of India chief and sitting Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. And they were met with all the force of the Indian system. Instead of being on the mat, wrestling each other and training to take on the world, they were here, being pinned down by their own.
You know the details -- the terrible accusations against Singh, the months long sit-in that Vinesh Phogat and Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik led on the streets of India's capital. You even know what came after -- the talks with the Government, the filing of a case against Singh, an authority figure brought to court by the sheer determination of a handful of champions who chose to not keep quiet. You know the case is still going on.
But if one photo, one moment, captured the nature of this great struggle, of just how David vs Goliath this all was, it was this. They say a picture speaks a thousand words. This one does the work of ten.