At seven months pregnant, she judged matches. Now, history awaits Kirtisna at the 2026 Asian Games

NEW DELHI: There is one image from her wrestling journey that Kirtisna Arya remembers with unusual clarity. It was May 2023. She was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, seven months pregnant with her second child.While most mothers-to-be would be preparing for the final stretch of pregnancy, Kirtisna spent five consecutive days on the wrestling mat demonstrating her management and judging skills as part of her United World Wrestling (UWW) coaching trial.The investigation could not wait. Neither could she. “I was seven months pregnant (with son Darsh) when I appeared for the Category 1 Level 1 course. I had to be on the mat for four to five days continuously and demonstrate my skills. I was pregnant but I was determined to complete the course,” recalls Kirtisna.That determination, more than three years later, has brought the 37-year-old from Uttarakhand to Nagoya – Kirtisna will become the first Indian woman to officiate at the Games or any other major multi-sport event.Accredited as a technical official, Kirtisna will have three responsibilities on his shoulders during the games: umpire matches, referee matches and serve as mat chairman.“When I received the email from UWW informing me of my selection, it was a proud moment for the family. My daughter Pannavi was overjoyed,” Kirtisna told TOI.“I never thought I would be selected for the Asian Games,” she said.Krirtisna will leave for Japan on September 26. The assignment will keep him away from home for about 10 days, including three-and-a-half-year-old Darsh. “I know it’s going to be hard for them, but they’ll understand what their mother did when they grow up and hopefully they’ll be proud of it,” she said.For Kirtisna, the trip to Japan was never about achieving one specific goal. It was about refusing to give up on wrestling – even when life repeatedly gave her reasons to do so.Kirtisna grew up in Bharatpur village in Haridwar district, in a family where wrestling was deeply woven into everyday life. Omveer Singh’s father was a renowned wrestler and disciple of the legendary master Chandgi Ram. But having a wrestler for a father didn’t necessarily make it easier for daughters to become wrestlers. “People would say, ‘Girls aren’t meant for wrestling. Don’t put your girls there.’ There was a lot of social pressure,” says Kirtisna.Still, Kirtisna, the second of three sisters, started wrestling in 2004 after grade X and had her biggest success on the mat in 2011 at the Commonwealth Championships in Melbourne where she won silver in the 59kg category.An ACL tear ended her playing career and she retired in 2013. She completed her NIS coaching diploma in 2010-11 and joined the SAI center at Bahalgarh, Sonepat in February 2014 as an assistant coach. Motherhood brought a new challenge. Her daughter Pannavi was born in 2016 and this led her to switch to refereeing.