Vinesh Phogat turned down an opportunity to appeal against the Court of Arbitration for Sports's verdict on her appeal for a medal, according to her lawyer Harish Salve. After joining the politics, the recently retired wrestler has reportedly decided not to carry her challenge for the medal.
The 30-year-old wrestler criticised the Indian Olympic Association and its president PT Usha for a lack of support after she was disqualified from her final bout. Salvi also revealed that Vinesh Phogat's team and the IOA's team lacked coordination while representing the wrestler's case in the Court of Arbitration.
“There was a complete lack of coordination, lack of cohesion for quite some time initially," Harish Salve told TimesNow. "That’s because the very good law firm which had been engaged by the Indian Olympic Association was told by some lawyers who the athlete had engaged that ‘we will not share anything with you, we will not give anything to you. It was very late we got everything.
"Later on, we got everything and we fought hard. In fact, I even offered the lady that maybe we can challenge it in the Swiss court of appeal against the arbitration award but I was told by the lawyers that my impression is she didn’t want to carry this any further."
Vinesh was disqualified from her final bout against USA's Sarah Hildebrandt after being weighed 50 grams more on August 7. Her disqualification triggered a rage among Indian fans who were further disappointed after the wrestler was denied a silver medal as well.
The IOA was quick to approach the CAS and appointed well-known sports lawyers Harish Salve and Vidushpat Singhania to represent Vinesh's appeal for the silver medal. After almost a week of wait, the CAS declared their verdict against Vinesh citing no rules were broken by the IOC and United World Wrestling.
