Diksha Dagar Wins Gold at Deaflympics Caxias

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 12 May 2022

Diksha Dagar of India defeated American Ashlyn Grace in the final to clinch gold at the Deaflympics, fulfilling her pledge to improve on her silver-winning performance in 2017.

Diksha is now the only golfer with two Deaflympic medals - a silver in Samsun, Turkey in 2017 and a gold in 2022, which is actually the Deaflympics in 2021.

The 21-year-old left-hander, a professional with victories on the Ladies European Tour, capped off a dominant performance by winning the match play part of the ladies golf championship 5 and 4. She defeated Grace Johnson by four holes.

When golf was first introduced in the Deaflympics in 2017, Diksha, then an amateur and still under the age of 17, easily reached the final.

There, she lost in a play-off against American Yost Kaylin, who was also competing on the Symetra Tour and in several LPGA Tour events at the time.

Diksha qualified for the Tokyo Olympics at the last minute in 2021, making her the first golfer to compete in both the Deaflympics and the Olympic Games.

Diksha turned professional in early 2019 and won the Investec South Africa Women's Open that same year. She was a member of the winning squad at the Aramco Team Series London in 2021. The Ladies European Tour includes both events.

She won many times on the Hero Women's Pro Circuit in India while still an amateur.

Diksha has a hearing problem and has been wearing hearing aids since she was six years old.

The battle for bronze was fierce, with Frenchwoman Margaux ending Norwegian Andrea Hovtsein's bid for a second medal on the third play-off hole, the 21st. Andrea won a bronze medal in 2017.