In this August 6, 2024 file image, India’s Vinesh Phogat after winning her Women’s Freestyle 50kg Round of 16 wrestling match against Japan’s Yui Susaki at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France. Phogat on August 7, 2024, was disqualified from the Olympics for being found overweight ahead of her women’s 50kg final.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Vinesh Phogat’s dream run at the Paris Olympics came to a morale-shattering halt after she failed to meet the weight requirement for her women’s 50kg wrestling gold medal bout. She also lost out on a confirmed silver medal.
The 29-year-old was a little over 100 grams above the 50kg weight limit during this morning’s weigh-in at 7.15am local time. Vinesh weighed 49.9kg on Tuesday morning ahead of her first-round bout, well within the permissible limit. She, however, gained weight during the day as she secured three back-to-back wins, including one over defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki, to reach the final.
After the end of her semifinal win over Cuba’s Yuznelys Guzman, her weight was around 52.7kg.
The athlete, her coaches, and her support staff spent a sleepless night without food or water to make the cut. When everything failed, they resorted to extreme measures such as cutting her hair and attempting to draw out blood, but their efforts did not yield the desired results.
Vinesh’s journey at the Olympics
Vinesh had wrestled at her first Olympics in the 48kg category in Rio. She was 22 then. As she grew older, it became harder to maintain that weight. She then moved up to the 50kg category and then the 53kg category at the time of the Tokyo Olympics. Even at 53kg, she was losing a lot of weight to compete. The weight loss resulted in poor recovery and frequent injuries. Her injury also coincided with the rise of another Indian wrestler Antim Panghal. As Vinesh lay bedridden, Antim won a bronze in the women’s 53kg category and earned a quota for the Paris Olympics. Vinesh had no option but to drop down to the 50kg category — the lightest in women’s wrestling.
The Olympics — the highlight of an athlete’s career — have never left happy memories for Vinesh.
In 2016, her campaign was cut short when she was badly injured in the quarterfinals. Five years later in Tokyo, she had prepared well but the stresses of the weight cut left her with a neurological ailment that left her dazed and confused on the mat, unable even to see what was in front of her during her second-round match. Another early exit followed.
At her lowest point, the powerful, like vultures, picked on her. Her nature, naturally confident and outspoken, was used against her. They prodded and nudged at her, confident that her career was all but done. They insulted her. They insulted her coach Hungary’s Woller Akos, who had left his wife and young child to come and work with the Indian and accused him of being money minded.
In January 2023, Vinesh, along with other wrestlers, had started an unprecedented protest against the then Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him of sexual harassment.
She fought her battle not on the synthetic mat but on the pavement of New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in the sweltering heat and humidity of the North Indian summer. One year before the Olympics, while the rest of the world was entering the final lap of their preparation, Vinesh was sleeping in a tent under a Neem tree in the heart of Delhi. And when she was awake, she had a microphone in hand, calling out all that was wrong in sport for women in India.
She continued to fight even when the police dragged her away from the protest site. She went to court, and she is still fighting there.
In the autumn of 2023, while Susaki coasted to a second World title, dropping three points in four matches, Vinesh was recovering from a surgery to a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament. It’s a surgery that necessitates, at the best of times, a six-month layoff. She cried and willed herself through rehabilitation and qualified for the Olympics.
But just as redemption was one bout away from her, Vinesh’s world has again come crashing down.
