‘My Parents Named Me Aakhri (Last). Today, They Are Proud of Me’

“When I was born, no one in my family was happy. I was the fourth daughter. To request God to stop the birth of girls, my parents named me Aakhri — the last,” says Aakhri Sharma, her voice calm but resolute. “Today, when I win medals for my parents and my country, they feel proud of the same child they once thought was unwanted.”

Aakhri recently won a gold medal in fencing at the Khelo India University Games held in Kota, turning a deeply personal story of gender bias into one of resilience and national achievement.

Hailing from Hansi in Haryana, Aakhri is a final-year student of Bachelor of Physical Education and Sports at Hansraj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya, Jalandhar. She is currently in Aurangabad, attending a training camp for the upcoming Senior Asian Games.

A farmer’s daughter and the only sportsperson in her family, Aakhri’s rise has been anything but easy. Yet her list of achievements continues to grow. Earlier this year, she won silver in the Women’s Sabre event at the National Games in Uttarakhand, along with team gold and individual bronze at the Senior National Championships in Delhi held in November. She also represented India at the Senior World Cup in Egypt, gaining crucial international exposure despite missing out on a medal.

Her coach, Sandeep Syal, has played a key role in shaping her competitive edge, while Ramandeep, sports in-charge at HMV, says Aakhri’s performance has shown steady year-on-year improvement. “We have very high expectations from her at the international level,” she said.

After Aakhri’s birth, her parents had a fifth daughter — a quiet reminder of the social bias she was born into. But today, that narrative has changed.

Once named “last” in the hope of ending daughters, Aakhri Sharma now stands tall as a symbol of defiance against gender prejudice, proving that worth is not decided at birth, but earned — step by step, bout by bout, medal by medal.