by PARIS — The Indian wrestler who failed to make weight for her gold medal bout at the 2024 Paris Olympics has abruptly retired.
Vinesh Phogat, who could have been India’s first Olympic medallist in wrestling, announced in an emotional social media post that she was retiring from the sport. The news came less than 24 hours after she took drastic measures to lose weight, including cutting her hair, but she was about 0.2 pounds over the maximum allowed in her weight category.
In a message written in Hindi and posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Phogat said goodbye to her wrestling career and also asked for forgiveness.
“Mother, the fight has won against me. I have lost,” she wrote in the message, according to a translation published by The Hindustan Times, a Delhi-based English-language newspaper.
“Your dreams and my courage are shattered. I have no strength left now.”
Phogat, 29, a three-time Olympic competitor, is one of India’s best-known female wrestlers, particularly after her public involvement in protests against the country’s former top wrestling official, who was accused of sexual harassment. She was one of several wrestlers in India who called for criminal charges against the official, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was removed from his post last year.
Phogat has won two world championship bronze medals in the last five years, as well as an Asian championship in 2021, all in the 53-kilogram category. In Paris, however, she dropped to 50 kilos − and her first day of competition couldn’t have gone any easier.
Phogat opened Tuesday by beating Yui Susaki, a Japanese wrestler who had never lost a match to an international opponent and won gold at the Tokyo Games without conceding a point. She then narrowly beat Oksana Livach of Ukraine and Yusneylys Guzmán of Cuba to advance to the gold medal match against Sarah Hildebrandt of the United States.
By the end of that first day, Phogat’s weight had increased by nearly 2.7 kilograms, according to Indian media reports. The Indian Olympic Association said she spent the entire night sweating in a sauna and training with limited food and water, aiming to get back to 50 kilograms by Wednesday morning.
As a last resort, she even cut her hair. But it wasn’t enough and the IOA said she was later hospitalized for possible dehydration.
“After three tough matches against world-class opponents, no athlete should have to spend the night preparing for a gold medal like this,” NBC commentator and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs wrote on X.
Under international wrestling rules, Phogat was not only disqualified from the gold medal bout, but she was also technically relegated to the last spot in the 16-woman field. The development sparked both widespread sympathy and anger in India, with politicians publicly urging sports officials to challenge her disqualification.
United World Wrestling officials told Indian media that nothing could be done. However, several of the same outlets reported that Phogat had filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, asking a panel of arbitrators to award him a silver medal. A CAS spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email requesting further information, but such an appeal appears unlikely to succeed.
Contribution from Reuters
Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on social media @Tom_Schad.
