Savita Punia (born 11 July 1990) is an Indian field hockey player and a member of the India women's national team. She plays as the goalkeeper and is known as the Great Wall of India. Her performance at the 2020 Olympics is widely appreciated. She is the most capped player for India.
Early and personal life Savita Punia was born in Jodhkan village of Sirsa district in Haryana. She was sent to the district headquarters for better schooling. She was enrolled in the sports academy. She was encouraged by her grandfather Mahinder Singh to take up hockey and joined the Sports Authority of India center at Hisar. She was coached by Sunder Singh Kharab during her early years and later coached by Azad Singh Malik. She was initially not too interested in the game, but later, when her father spent Rs. 20,000 on her kit, she started to see the game in a new light and got serious about it. In 2007, Punia was picked for a maiden national camp in Lucknow, and she trained with a top goalkeeper.
She is married to software engineer and music composer, Ankit Balhara.
Career In 2008, Punia made her first international tour, a four-nation event in Netherlands and Germany. She made her senior international debut in the year 2011. She has featured in more than 100 games at the international level. She qualified for the national team in 2007 when she was barely 17. In 2009, she participated as a member of the team in the Junior Asia Cup. In 2013, she participated in the Eighth Women's Asia Cup held in Malaysia in which she saved two crucial potential goals in the penalty shoot-out and paved the way for India to win a bronze medal. She was a part of the bronze-winning team at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
In 2016, she withstood a barrage of penalty corners against Japan in the last minute to help India hold on to its 1–0 lead. She helped the team qualify for the Rio Olympics after 36 years. In the Asia Cup of 2018, she made an astonishing save against China in the final, earning herself the goalkeeper of the tournament award and for her team, a slot in the 2018 World Cup in London.
At the Hawke's Bay Cup in New Zealand, she helped her team finish 6th in the tournament.
Her outstanding performance helped the women's Indian team to beat Chile in the final match of the Women's Hockey World League Round 2.
In an interview in 2016, Punia revealed that she had been promised a job under the Haryana Government's Medal Lao, Naukri Pao scheme, but hadn't got it. A year later too, she said that nothing had changed.
In the gold medal match against China in the 2026 Asian Games, she blocked the penalty stroke from Zhang Ying, which helped India to win the match by 1–0 and clinched the Asiad gold after 44 years.
Awards and nominations She was awarded the Baljit Singh Goalkeeper of the Year award at the Hockey India Annual Awards in 2015, for having phenomenal performances for India in international contributions which proved her worth as the best goalkeeper in the country. She also received a cash reward of 1 lakh rupees for her contribution to the sports.
+YearAwardCategoryResultRef.2025Hockey India AwardsGoalkeeper of the YearPlayer of the Year Female
National honours 2018 – Arjuna Award, India's 2nd highest sporting honour 2026 – Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian award
References
External links
Savita Punia at Hockey India