In what turned out to be a heart-breaking event for the country at the Paris Olympics, Vinesh Phogat was disqualified hours before her final Gold medal match under the 50 Kg category against USA’s wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt on Wednesday, as she weighed 100 grams over the said weight category that she qualified to compete in.
Vinesh became the first Indian woman to reach the final gold medal match on Tuesday evening. The celebrations that lasted for only 12 hours raised many questions around how was she qualified for the category that was way lower than her natural weight of 56 Kg. Her favoured weight category for the Olympics was 53kg and not 50Kg.
The story goes back in March in the qualification round namely, the Asian Olympic Games Qualifier when she was defeated in the 53 kg bout by Anju with a major technical- superiority of 0-10. However, she then demanded to compete in 50kg, to secure herself a spot in the Paris Olympics.
Her unprecedented request to compete in two categories led to the halt of the trials for almost three hours upsetting all other wrestlers present and waiting for their turn.
She also demanded that a written assurance be given to her that the final trial will be held in 53 Kg weight class before the Olympics.
However, at that time Antim Panghal had already secured her quota in the 53 Kg category after she won bronze in the 2023 World Championship.
Phogat who competed in the 53 Kg category in the Tokyo Olympics, was then allowed to compete in both categories in the trials by an ad-hoc committee, ignoring all the complaints that other wrestlers made. She defeated Shivani in the 50 Kg category by 11-6 and secured herself a spot in the Paris Olympics.
Ever since Phogat decided, to compete in the 50 Kg category she has been facing difficulties in maintaining her weight below the limit, she at first, easily brought her weight to 53 Kg from 56, but was then consistently facing problems in reducing three more kgs.
Last year, in August she went through a ligament surgery and during that time, her weight reportedly reached 59kgs. According to the reports, her decision to reduce her weight to 50 kg met with a lot of criticism from doctors as she considerably lessened her food and water intake and sudden weight loss could lead to weakness and injuries.
After winning the 50 Kg quota for India, she said, “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.”
She further added, “Because of that, I gain weight easily. It doesn’t matter how fit I am, I still gain weight because I have a lot of muscle mass. I just want to control my weight. I have four months left, and every day is very important.”
Back then a coach present during the trials had said, “Vinesh wants an assurance from the government. Probably she fears that if FI gets back control, the federation may change the selection policy.
He continued, “But how can the government give assurance on this? The government can’t interfere in selection matters.”
Vinesh said that it would be an honour for her to bring a quota in the 50kg category.
“I was aiming to compete in the 53kg category, (but) considering Antim Panghal has already secured a quota and due to unclear guidelines, I participated in the 50kg category as well. Winning a quota in the 50kg category for India would also be an immense honour for me,” she said.
During this Olympic stint, her rendition on the first day under 50kg was spectacular as she went on to win against a four-time world champion, Yui Susaki, aged 25 and then she straight away won her quarter-finals against Ukraine's Oksana, aged 30 and beaten Cuban’s Guzman Lopez Yusneylis in semi-finals to reach finals and becoming the first Indian woman to reach this stage. However, her stars were only aligned till Tuesday night, as the next morning her disqualification awaited.
Allowing a wrestler to compete in two categories is against Article 7 of United World Wrestling (UWW), a wrestler can only take part in one weight category on a single day. However, still the three-member ad-hoc committee which runs the affairs of wrestling in India, after WFI was suspended by the sports ministry, said that “the favourable decision for Vinesh was taken unanimously.”
“We responded to Vinesh’s request to compete in both categories, the entire committee agreed to accommodate her request and allowed her to participate in both,” said the ad-hoc committee’s chairman Bhupender Bajwa.
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