Vinesh Phogat retires after Olympic disqualification: ‘Wrestling won, I lost’
A dejected Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement from wrestling via a social media post on Thursday morning, a day after being disqualified from the Paris Olympics 2024. “Mother wrestling won 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. Please forgive (me),” she wrote on X.
Vinesh 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. The Indian wrestler was 100gm overweight.
The 29-year-old had become the first Indian female wrestler to advance to the finals of the Olympic Games and assure herself at least a silver medal in women’s 50kg. However, she was found overweight in the mandatory weigh-in on the morning of her bout and was disqualified from the event despite the best efforts by her coaches, support staff and the Indian Olympic Association.
She had to be taken to a polyclinic at the Games village owing to severe dehydration caused by her desperate measures to make the cut, which included going hungry, avoiding fluids and staying up all night to sweat it out. She even tried to cut her hair short to reduce excess weight. But nothing worked.
Vinesh appeals against disqualification in CAS
Late on Wednesday night, Vinesh appealed against her disqualification in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a joint silver medal after being forced out for being 100gm overweight in the morning weigh-in.
An ad-hoc division of the CAS has been set up in Paris for resolution by arbitration of any disputes arising during the Olympic Games or during a period of 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.
Hidebrandt won the bout to claim gold and Vinesh is now banking on CAS to be a joint silver-medallist with Lopez.
The rules of admission of such cases at CAS are very clear. Before filing such 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.”
The exception being situations where “the time needed to exhaust the internal remedies would make the appeal to the CAS Ad Hoc Division ineffective.”
However, the sport’s international governing body, United World Wrestling (UWW) has made it known to the IOA that the current weigh-in rule that led to the disqualification of Vinesh cannot be changed as of now.
“I have nothing against that (India’s appeal) but I know the outcome,” he 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),” said UWW chief Nenad Lalovic.