Vinesh Phogat announces retirement from wrestling
Vinesh has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being disqualified, and has asked for an Olympics silver medal.
A day after she was disqualified and missed out on the opportunity to win an Olympic medal, ace Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement from the sport on Thursday.
“Wrestling beat me, I lost…please forgive me ..your dream. My courage, everything is broken. I don’t have any more strength left in me. Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. I will always be indebted to you all..sorry.,” she wrote on X.
The 29-year-old wrestler, who became the first Indian female to make an Olympic final in the discipline, was found 100 grams above the stipulated 50kg during the weigh-in on the morning of the final. Vinesh was disqualified, lost a confirmed medal and the Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez who she defeated in the semi-final, went into the final.
Vinesh has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after being disqualified, and has asked for a silver medal. A decision is expected today.
A two-time World Championship medallist and miltiple-time gold medalist wrestler at the Commonwealth Games, Vinesh has had terrible luck at the Olympics. In 2016, she had to retire during her quarterfinal bout after an ACL injury. This time, she was undone by 100 grams.
According to the chief medical officer of the Indian contingent, Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, Vinesh stayed up all night along with her team and tried everything “humanly possible” to cut weight, including chopping off her hair, but the 100 grams remained.
Vinesh, along with Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, was the face of the protests against former WFI chief Brijbhushan Sharan Singh for allegedly sexually harassing female wrestlers. Vinesh now wraps up a career without an Olympic medal but her legacy remains undefeated.