Vinesh Phogat Retires, India Weeps

Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Thursday (August 8, 2024) announced her retirement from wrestling a day after she was disqualified from the 50 kg category Paris Olympics finals.

In an emotional post on social media platform X, she wrote, “Mom, wrestling has defeated me, I lost. Forgive me, your dream, my courage is all broken, I don’t have any more strength now. Goodbye wrestling.”

Phogat had secured a silver medal and was expected to fight United States wrestler Sarah Ann Hildebrandt for the gold medal. However, she failed the weigh-in for the 50kg final event on Wednesday morning.

Phogat was about 100 grams over the permissible limit of 50kgs and hence was disqualified from the competition.

ESPN Sports Journalist Shyam Vasudevan, who is currently in Paris covering the Olympics explained the process of weight cut. “The dreaded weight cut is a battle that the athletes in combat sports have to go through before a competition.

“Sakshi Malik, the first India's woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal, had once joked that athletes deserve a medal just for going through an arduous weight cut,” he wrote.

According to reports, the weight-management process panned over intense 12-odd hours, beginning after her semifinal win on Tuesday evening Paris time.

Phogat was found to be around 100 grams over the weight, which led to her being disqualified while Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who she beat in the semi-final, will compete for a gold now.

Meanwhile, a statement from the Paris 2024 organisers said: “Vinesh failed the second day weigh-in. According to the article 11 of the International Wrestling Rules, Vinesh will be replaced by the wrestler who lost against her in the Semifinal. Therefore, Yusneylis Guzman Lopez (Cuba) will compete in the Final while Yui Susaki (Japan) and Oksana Livach (Ukraine) will play in the bronze medal match.”

Latest photographs of Phogat’s devastated face are doing rounds with solidarity being poured from all over the world. However, there have been absurd reactions from some Indian political leaders, especially from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members.

There are also concerns on why the Indian government or associations did not intervene to solve the matter, abandoning their athlete.

A series of events, meanwhile, points towards a systemic issue of neglect and discrimination before the games. It started from the months-long protest held by the women wrestlers in Jantar Mantar, which left the players mentally and physically exhausted.

Phogat has been on a constant weight cut journey for the last seven months. She went from 60 kgs to 55 kgs to compete in the nationals in February, and then cut down to 50 kgs to compete in the Olympic trials. Her normal body weight is around 53 kgs, the weight division she earlier fought in.

Vasudevan explained that athletes have to use extreme measures to cut down weight. “It's when athletes are scrambling to make weight and use extreme measures such as hours of cardio in a sweat suit, steam and sauna sessions back-to-back in a bid to make weight.

“They try to lose as much fluid as possible as that would in-turn reduce their weight on the scale. Athletes have even opted to cutting their hair to lose a few extra grams. Such is the level of exhaustion that athletes find it unable to sleep in these situations,” he said.

In Phogat’s case, she even cut her hair shorter.

According to reports, the authorities were supposed to conduct trials and determine final categories which never happened. While there are reports of neglect from authorities, especially in concern with Phogat’s the coach and physio, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president on Wednesday blasted at Vinesh's coach, dietician and physio demanding they be held accountable for the “embarrassing” situation.

“The player is fully concentrated on her practice which is why it would be unfair to blame her for this. Why is the support staff sent with the athlete, and the government sends them along with the player, ‘Wo sab wahan tafri karne gaye hai kya (have they gone there for tourism)?'  Sanjay Singh said.

The authorities were supposed to conduct trials and determine final categories which never happened. In May, the WFI declared that there will be no trials to choose India’s representatives for the 2024 Olympics.

It is to be noted that Wrestling Federation of India Chief is the confidante of its former chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was accused of sexual harassment by Phogat and Sakshi Malik.

In May, it was reported that the no-trials decision wouldn’t necessarily be a precedent. In established wrestling nations with prolific medal counts, from USA to Japan, Iran to Russia, trials are held to choose the in-form wrestler after quotas are secured.

The Wrestling Federation of India, which had never warmed up to that system and followed the practice of sending quota winners till Tokyo, had announced in 2021 that trials would be held to pick the 2024 squad.

However, things did not end there. After Phogat decided to cut her weight and move into the 50 kg category, she requested for supervision, which she was not provided.

“For the past one month, I have been requesting the Government of India (SAI, TOPS) for the accreditation of my coach and physio. Without accreditation, it is not possible for my coach and physio to accompany me to the competition arena,” Phogat had taken to social media at the time and wrote this on X.

She had also written how they were being mentally harassed.

“But despite repeated requests, I am not getting any concrete answer from anywhere. No one is ready to help. Will the future of players always be played with like this?

“No stone is being left unturned to mentally harass us. How far is it justified to torture us like this before such an important competition?” she asked.

The post that was shared in April has raised many eyebrows, and accusations against WFI chief Sanjay Singh were raised, for conspiring against Phogat and trying to stop her from competing in the Olympic qualifiers.

“Brij Bhushan and his dummy Sanjay Singh are trying in every way to stop me from playing in the Olympics. All the coaches who have been appointed with the team are the favourites of Brij Bhushan and his team, so it cannot be denied that they may mix something in my water and make me drink it during my match?” Phogat wrote on ‘X.’

“If I say that there could be a conspiracy to trap me in doping, then it will not be wrong.

“Will we face politics even before we go to play for the country because we raised our voice against sexual harassment? Is this the punishment for raising voice against wrong in our country? “I hope we will get justice before we go to play for the country,” she added.

Meanwhile, Singh has demanded action against the support staff attached with Phogat.

Phogat has been training with Woller Akos, her personal coach from Belgium and has also worked with South African mental conditioning coach Wayne Lombard.

“They (staff) should have paid attention to her all the time to ensure nothing of this sort happens. How this happened and how she went over the weight limit must be looked into,” he said. I request the Government of India to take action against all those responsible,” he added.

Vinesh had opted to train with Akos and the government of India had cleared his travel along with Vinesh for the Games. Akos, like the Indian national coaches, was granted full-access accreditation. It cannot be denied that Akos has played a key role in reshaping Vinesh's game.

He has been working with the 29-year-old star Indian wrestler since 2018, bringing in technical and tactical changes to her game. Phogat has won two World Championship bronze medals with him.

Vinesh Phogat was on top of her game when she trumped unbeaten Yui Susaki, employing a strategy of playing a waiting game and executing a match-winning move in the dying moments of the match.

“The Wrestling Federation of India will try their best to hire coaches who have cleared the level 1 and level two courses of the UWW. We will also ensure that the wrestlers practice with the coaches of WFI and officials of the UWW so that such episodes never happen ever again,” Singh, meanwhile, said.

Asked specifically, will WFI allow personal coaches or not, Singh said, the matter will be discussed. “The entire WFI committee will decide how to move forward with this matter,” he said.

Singh said he is holding a meeting with Indian Olympics Association (IOA) President P. T. Usha and they will approach UWW chief Nenad Lalovic to see if anything can be done.

“I spoke to the IOA and the UWW (United World Wrestling) and I even sent letters, asking them to look into the matter and allow her to compete,” he said.

Reactions have been pouring in all day for the devastating news, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling Vinesh Phogat a “champion among champions”. “Wish words could express the sense of despair that I am experiencing,” Modi said on X.

Meanwhile, Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, who was also one of the faces of the wrestlers’ protest with Vinesh Phogat, has reacted to the news saying: “If it was possible, I would have given my medal to Vinesh.”

Tokyo Olympics medallist Bajrang Punia said: “The whole country is unable to hold back its tears.” Former world champion Nikhat Zareen, who is herself nursing the heartbreak of missing out on an Olympic medal which everyone expected her to win, said that “seeing what Vinesh is going through makes my pain seem insignificant.”

India's senior sports journalist B. Krishnaswamy calls the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat as unbelievable. He is covering the Olympics in Paris and said, “I have never come across any such cases in wrestling that [a] finalist was overweight. This is unusual.”

Solidarity has also been pouring in for the wrestler after the heartbreaking announcement.

An open feminist solidarity letter, signed by women scholars, academics and activists, has congratulated Phogat for her hard work and called her a hero.

“Dear Vinesh, Congratulations!! You have not lost. You are our hero and will remain so. Yesterday in Paris you showed what you really are. Your skill is unmatched and there is no height that you can’t scale.

“Please don't be disappointed by this ‘disqualification’. We understand that it was not your responsibility to take care of your weight. There should be an investigation as to where and by whom the mistake has been made.

“We express our protest against your disqualification and would like to request you not to feel sad at this moment. You will keep flying high, do not lose hope. You are and will remain our hero,” the letter read.