'Confidence is most important': Sakshi Malik is queen of the mat again

They'd written her off after her Rio bronze, but with a gold in the Commonwealth Games, Malik has shown the fire burns bright, writes Vaibhav Raghunandan

Perhaps the mark of an elite athlete doesn’t come from the number of victories or medals they gather, but from what they do with the losses they rack up. Kipling’s words about triumph and disaster, "two imposters” that should be treated "just the same", ring true. And while Sakshi Malik hasn’t read Kipling, she gets his advice better than most. She trusted herself when those around doubted her, and, most importantly, made allowance for their doubting, too.

“I understand, you guys have a job to do,” she says, speaking from her home in Rohtak, Haryana. It's late evening, and she’s