Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who appealed against her disqualification at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), announced her retirement on Thursday, August 8. The development followed a heartbreaking disqualification, which cost her an elusive Olympic medal in Paris. She was disqualified for being 100 grams overweight ahead of her 50kg category Gold medal bout against USA's Sarah Hilderbrandt.
"Wrestling won and I lost. Please forgive me, your dreams and my spirit, everything is crushed and I don't have strength any more. Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024 Will forever be grateful to you all. Please forgive me," Vinesh wrote on X (formerly Twitter) while announcing her retirement in early morning hours from Paris.
Vinesh ended her career as a three-time Commonwealth Gold medallist. This was her third Olympic Games appearance. The first in Rio 2016 ended with her being stretchered off due to a career-threatening injury, while the second outing in Tokyo ended prematurely with an early defeat in the competition.
Vinesh's appeal against Olympic disqualification
Earlier, Vinesh appealed against her disqualification from the 50kg category Olympic finals in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a joint silver medal after being forced out following the second weigh-in on the morning of the bout.
She had to be taken to a polyclinic at the Games village owing to severe dehydration caused by the desperate measures taken for her weigh-cut, which included going hungry, avoiding fluids and staying up all night to sweat it out (skipping, jogging sauna). An ad-hoc division of the CAS has been set up here for resolution by arbitration of any disputes arising during the Summer Games or anytime in the 10 days prior to the opening ceremony. The final call will be taken on Thursday.
Tragic end to Vinesh's wrestling journey
An entire nation's hopes were crushed under the weight of 100 grams. With hours to go before her gold medal bout on Wednesday, Vinesh stood on the scale: the figures on display were horrifying. For her 50kg category fight, she was 100gm overweight, leading to an automatic disqualification on perhaps the biggest day of her sporting career. Dehydrated after three gruelling bouts on Tuesday, a desperate Vinesh merely had "small amounts of water", cut her hair, and stayed up all night working out to ensure that she didn't go over the prescribed limit for her weight. It wasn't enough and no amount of pleading by the Indian officials to get her some more time to shed those 100gm could change the rules.
Vinesh led protests against former WFI president
Vinesh, off the mat, too hit headlines after she led a fierce protest against "government inaction" on the sexual harassment allegations against former Wrestling Federation of India head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in 2023. The matter is sub judice now.
(With agency inputs)
