Vinesh’s resilience in the face of this setback is genuinely admirable
Vinesh Phogat is from Charki Dadri, Haryana, and comes from a wrestling family. She is the daughter of Rajpal Phogat and was trained by her uncle, Mahavir Singh Phogat. After knowing each other for seven long years, she married fellow wrestler Somvir Rathee.
Both are employed with the Railways. Vinesh Phogat’s list of achievements is awe-inspiring. She won gold medals in the Commonwealth Games on multiple occasions in 2014, 2018, and 2022. She also won gold at the 2018 Asian Games, making her the only woman wrestler to have won gold twice in the same year. Her success is not limited to these events, as she has also won two bronze medals at the World Wrestling Championship. Vinesh has participated in a variety of wrestling weight classes, including 48, 50, 51, 53, and 55 kg, in the Asian Championships but preferred to stick to 53 kilograms after the 2019 World Championships and Commonwealth Games. Her achievements are a source of pride for the entire nation.
Her foray into politics was not without adequate justification. Along with her colleagues Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Mallick, she rebelled against Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, the chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), for his indecent behaviour towards the female wrestlers. During that period, she faced police brutality, which affected her practice sessions and significantly impacted her fitness.
Mr Brijbhushan Sharan Singh had close, unknown links with the PM and his clique, and hence, this defiance was not left unnoticed by anyone in the higher echelons of administration. However, it was mentioned in almost all the dailies of the nation, yet it was unable to draw the attention of the top openly. After her skirmish with the wrestling greats (!!) of the country, she was threatened by various unidentified quarters with a subsequent deterioration in her career growth!
The 53 kg weight class was conferred on a young debutant, lesser-known wrestler, Antim Panghal, while Vinesh chose a 50 kg weight class instead. It was astounding to do that at this later stage of her career without a bona fide rationale or motive being provided for the change.
Vinesh Phogat’s dynamism surfaced in the nick of time as she triumphed over three of her contenders: a Cuban, Yusneylus Gujmol; a Ukrainian, Oksana Livach; and finally, Yui Suzaki, the Japanese World Champion, who consistently won without conceding a single point to any of her opponents. Vinesh defeated her in the 16th round in a gruelling bout, and it was apparent that she could win the gold for India in her final bout.
Despite her weight being perfectly under control (49.9 kg) on that occasion, Vinesh faced a setback when she started gaining almost 2.7 kilograms of unwanted weight. She and her staff spent the whole night on the grounds trying to lose weight, but their efforts were in vain. The next day, she cut her hair short, and then her attire was shortened in a distraught effort to shed some weight. As the experts opined, losing weight is much easier when you have a lot to be shed, but later, reduction of weight in smaller quantities becomes an arduous task. Vinesh’s resilience in the face of this setback is genuinely admirable. Finally, it was found on the day of her final bout that she was overweight by 100 gm and hence could not be qualified for the event.
Sanjay Singh, the WFI president, was in Paris but reportedly did not meet Vinesh after her disqualification; his explanation for his absence was that his men were not allowed to be beside her. Vinesh Phogat had her own staff on board to provide her with adequate safety and trustworthiness, and she was sceptical about the government authorities providing her with the comfort she desired. Unlike many other countries, the Indian administrators outnumbered the athletes in strength. Of the total strength of 117 athletes, a whopping 257 administrators were accompanying them.
Despite the administrator’s; expansive strength, none of them could engage in a battle to seek the silver medal for Vinesh’s reported wins and withdraw from the finals. The PM failed to call on her victory and disqualification, nor did he assign any responsibility to the IOC chairperson, P T Usha, to interact with the authorities in control either to battle for the gold or seek the silver that she earned justly! Meanwhile, the athlete from Kenya, Faith Kipyegon, who was disqualified for an apparent obstruction, has been reinstated with a silver medal after an appeal from the Kenyan official.
Sadly, in India, the sports minister was heard in Parliament lamenting the colossal funds that were made available to Vinesh Phogat for her participation in the Paris Olympics. At the same time, the Romanian Prime Minister vowed to boycott the Paris Olympics closing ceremony for unjustly denying the bronze to his Romanian gymnast, Ana Barbosu.
Weight-cutting is a complicated process that involves severe and calculated restrictions on water and food intake in tandem with relational sweating from exercise and sauna till the weigh-in on the morning of the event.
Dedicating her tweet to her mother, she regretfully expressed her woe thus: “Mother, wrestling has won, and I have lost. Forgive me. Your dreams are shattered. My courage is broken.
“You aren’t alone in your despair, dear Vinesh!! One hundred forty crores of us are with you.”
The views expressed by the author are strictly personal.
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