Vinesh Phogat (red) of India reacts defeating Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba in their Woman Greco-Roman 50kg Semifinal bout of the Wrestling competitions in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, at the South Paris Arena in Paris, France, on August 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: EPA-EFE via PTI
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s Olympic medal was snatched from her in the cruellest of twists of fate when she couldn’t make weight on the morning of her final in the women’s 50kg category. She will be disqualified from the competition, not allowed to compete in the final likely also be stripped of the silver medal
The 29-year-old was 150gm above the 50kg weight limit.
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The athlete and her coaches and support staff tried everything including extreme measures like cutting her hair and trying to draw out blood but their efforts did not yield the results they wanted.
According to UWW rules ‘If an athlete does not attend or fail the weigh in, he/she will be eliminated from the competition and ranked last without rank.”
Vinesh reached the finals after handing Yui Susaki her first ever defeat in international competition and then beating Oksana Livach and Yuznelys Guzman in the semifinals.
Vinesh will be the first athlete who was disqualified from her final because of not making weight.
Vinesh Phogat made history on Tuesday (August 6, 2024) by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach Olympics final. She had defeated Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman 5-0, thus assuring a medal for India.
“It is with regret that the Indian contingent shares news of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the Women’s Wrestling 50kg class. Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning. No further comments will be made by the contingent at this time. The Indian team requests you respect Vinesh’s privacy. It would like to focus on the competitions on hand,” the Indian Olympic Association said in a statement.
Incidentally, both Vinesh and Sakshi were the two prominent faces of wrestlers’ protest against alleged sexual harassment by the former Wrestling Federation of India top brass.
Vinesh, who usually competed at 53kg category had to switch the weight category to ensure that she does not miss the bus to Olympics.
“I will have to manage my weight a lot better. I have brought myself down to 50kg after so long so I will try and maintain this as much as I can. It’s not easy for me not to put on weight because my muscle mass is very high,” Vinesh had told PTI in April after winning the 50kg quota for India.
Vinesh had already suffered heartbreaks at the Rio Olympics and Tokyo Games where she was eliminated quite early despite being a medal favourite.
