New Delhi, Aug 8: In a heartfelt social media post on Thursday morning, a dejected Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement from wrestling. "Wrestling won the match against me, I lost... Your dreams and my courage are shattered. I don't have any more strength now. Goodbye Wrestling 2001-2024. I will forever be indebted to all of you. Sorry," she wrote on X.
The 29-year-old Indian wrestler was disqualified from the Paris Olympics and stripped of her medal hours before her historic gold medal bout after failing to meet the weigh-in on Wednesday morning, being 100 grams overweight.
Vinesh had become the first Indian female wrestler to advance to the finals of the Olympic Games, assuring herself at least a silver medal in the women's 50kg category. However, she was found overweight during the mandatory weigh-in on the morning of her bout and was disqualified from the event despite the best efforts of her coaches, support staff, and the Indian Olympic Association.
Severe dehydration from desperate measures to make weight, including going hungry, avoiding fluids, and staying up all night to sweat it out, led to Vinesh being taken to a polyclinic at the Games village. She even cut her hair short to reduce weight, but to no avail.
Late on Wednesday night, Vinesh appealed against her disqualification in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), demanding to be awarded a joint silver medal after being forced out for being 100 grams overweight during the morning weigh-in. An ad-hoc division of CAS has been set up in Paris to resolve any disputes arising during the Olympic Games or in the 10 days preceding the Opening Ceremony.
The matter will be taken up on Thursday morning. Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who lost to Vinesh in the semifinals, replaced her in the final against American Sarah Ann Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt won the bout to claim gold, and Vinesh is now banking on CAS to be named a joint silver medallist with Lopez.
The rules for admitting such cases at CAS are clear. Before filing a request, the claimant must exhaust "all the internal remedies available to her/him pursuant to the statutes or regulations of the sports body concerned," except in situations where "the time needed to exhaust the internal remedies would make the appeal to the CAS Ad Hoc Division ineffective."
However, United World Wrestling (UWW), the sport's international governing body, has informed the Indian Olympic Association that the current weigh-in rule that led to Vinesh's disqualification cannot be changed at this time. "I have nothing against that (India's appeal), but I know the outcome," UWW chief Nenad Lalovic told Indian reporters in Paris. “I don't see anything that can be done. It is the competition's rules, and I really don't think it is possible (to overturn the decision).”
