Champion, without medal
Vinesh Phogat's Olympic journey ends in despair as she gets disqualified for being overweight by 100 grams in the women's 50kg wrestling final in Paris.
An injured knee in Rio. A battered mind in Tokyo. A devastating disqualification in Paris.
Vinesh Phogat’s Olympic journey has ended in despair each time she’s turned up to fight harder for it. At the Paris Olympics, it landed her in the women’s 50kg final after three inspiring victories on Tuesday and promised her a confirmed medal. Only to come crashing down ahead of the final step on Wednesday morning for being overweight by a tiny fraction.
One hundred grams was all it took for India’s two-time World Championships medallist to endure a dramatic exit from the Games on the morning of her career’s biggest day. One hundred grams — less than the weight of two boiled eggs, or a small cake of butter, or a bar of soap.
On the line was her final with the USA’s Sarah Ann Hildebrandt, but with two different weight scales confirming her worst fears, Vinesh was scratched from the competition. A confirmed medal to a crushing “last, without rank” — as the rules of the United World Wrestling (UWW) state.
Members of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the contingent’s chief medical officer Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, Chef-de-Mission Gagan Narang and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) officials tried to seek some leeway in terms of time but there was none coming. IOA president PT Usha said WFI filed an appeal with UWW to reconsider the decision. The world body, though, stood firm on its rule.
“We have to respect the rules. It’s impossible to let someone compete who doesn’t make the weight,” UWW president Nenad Lalovic said. “I don’t see anything that can be done.”
And with that, Vinesh’s Olympic dreams, which saw sparkles of gold on Tuesday evening, went blue.
The Indian Olympic Association on late Wednesday evening appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), making a case for a shared silver for Vinesh, it is learnt. The CAS may give its interim ruling on Thursday.
For an athlete who spent a better part of 2023 on the streets in Delhi, fighting against the harassment of women wrestlers by corrupt and high-handed wrestling federation officials, the fight was for more than a medal.
On the eve of the final, for instance, she said that she wants to “fight for all the young women wrestlers so that they can wrestle safely -- that is why I was in Jantar Mantar and that is why I am here”, and promised to say more after the colour of her medal was decided.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the commiserations soon after as a nation erupted, first in disbelief and then in anger.
“Vinesh, you are a champion among champions! You are India’s pride and an inspiration for each and every Indian,” Modi wrote on X. “Today’s setback hurts. I wish words could express the sense of despair that I am experiencing. At the same time, I know that you epitomise resilience. It has always been your nature to take challenges head on. Come back stronger! We are all rooting for you.”
Her disqualification, though, has sparked a larger debate on the rules in the wrestling community at large, with some former champions suggesting that she may have been barred from the final and given a silver but should not have been stripped of her victories from Day 1.
“Wrestling needs more than six weight classes,” said Jordan Burroughs, an Olympic gold medallist and a six-time world champion. “After three tough matches against world class opponents, no athlete should have to spend the night preparing for a Gold medal in this manner.”
The events have also sparked larger questions about her weight category, given that she was forced to compete in the 50kg category, which is not her natural category. She has usually competed in the 53kg category in the recent past, but with Antim Panghal winning a quota, by virtue of her bronze, in that category at the World Championships in September 2023, she had to look elsewhere. The option was to go higher up the weight categories or go lower down where cutting weight would be difficult but her size would be an advantage. She made the tougher choice.
No sooner did Vinesh finish her semi-final bout on Tuesday than she swung into trimming her weight for the next. Competing in a lower 50kg division with her natural body weight of around 55-56kg, Vinesh was heavier by 2.7kg from consuming water throughout the day. She stayed up all night in the Athletes’ Village, hopping on to the treadmill, in the sauna, skipping, cycling and even chopping her hair to wipe every little gram away by the time of her weigh-in at around 7.30am. She cut it all, except for a 100 grams.
“We tried all possible drastic measures throughout the night,” Dr Pardiwala said.
Her fate sealed, a dehydrated Vinesh was administered fluids in the polyclinic inside the Athletes’ Village and precautionary blood tests were conducted — they returned normal — at a local hospital. It’s not where she had hoped to be hours before her podium-finishing bout.
Especially after having taken years to get there, and several hurdles overcome.
Her hunger only grew after a horrid knee injury during her quarter-final ended her debut Games prematurely at the 2016 Rio Games. It was fuelled to fierce heights after another quarter-final exit at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, after which she was made to apologise for her “indiscipline” by the national federation. Her mental health was under the scanner, her attitude questioned.
She dug in to fight on the streets of New Delhi while effectively putting her wrestling on hold for much of last year, and came out with renewed vigour to chase her Olympic glory despite another surgery and a complex weight cut decision.
The sight of her writhing in pain lying flat on the mat after the Rio quarters haunted her for long. The photographs of her being pushed by police as she tried to raise her voice against a defunct wrestling officialdom became an iconic symbol of the Athlete’s fight against the System.
So, Vinesh lying on the mat again on Tuesday, tears of joy streaming down her face this time, after defeating the hitherto unbeaten Japanese Yui Susaki in the opening round in Paris had completed a miraculous circle. Until it all flipped a day later.
“It has come as a big, big shock for all the Indian wresters here,” India’s national wrestling team coach Virender Singh Dahiya said.
There was an outpouring of despair even from her fellow Indian athletes.
Two-time Olympic medallist shuttler PV Sindhu tweeted, “I was deeply hoping you could win the gold.” Two-time world champion boxer Nikhat Zareen thought her hardest experience in Paris was when she lost her Round of 16 bout until Vinesh’s jolt made her pain “seem insignificant”. “Just last night,” she wrote on social media, “I was in tears watching her win the semi-finals and eagerly anticipating seeing her on the Olympic podium.”
An entire nation did see her up there. Until 100 grams ended the chase of a desperate goal even as it was within her grasp.