Paris Olympics: The 'weighty' issue that ended Vinesh Phogat's dream

It must have been a manic Wednesday for the Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics. A day which could have been one of guts and glory for wrestler Vinesh Phogat turned out to her biggest nightmare when she was disqualified for being ‘above the weight limit’ at the morning weigh-in for her 50 kg class final against Sarah Hildebrandt of the US in the evening.

As the whole of India lets out a collective gasp of shock, there are bound to be questions raised about a fiasco which is going to set back the 29-year-old’s professional career for good. While the sporting community was awestruck at her story of resilience and grit throughout Tuesday, the sense of disappointment has hit home badly at the loss of what could have been only the third individual Olympics gold medal for the country.

Leading up to the disqualification, Phogat used up every measure should could to bring her weight within the limit. A member of her camp told Sportstar, "After the semifinals last night, her weight was 52.7 kg. She didn’t sleep even a minute, didn’t drink a sip of water, and didn’t have a morsel of food. She spent the entire night running and using the sauna. She made it to 50.1 kg but didn’t have time to cut the last 100 grams. There was no leeway and no extra time to make weight."

The news of Vinesh being hospitalised for dehydration at the polyclinic at the Games Village is disturbing, though an educated guess is it may have been caused by her trying to reduce the extra ounce of weight through the usual means — rationing water intake, food and exercises like skipping or cycling. The wrestling event is a tightly scheduled one over three days and the Indian wrestler was very much within permissible limits at the official weigh-in ceremony on Tuesday, 6 August.

Wrestlers and other combat sport athletes generally resort to such drastic steps in the days leading up the weigh-in. However, once they have met the requirements, they can eat and drink, and the assumption is that whatever food Phogat may have had after her weigh-in on Tuesday may have contributed to her being found marginally overweight on Wednesday, 7 August.

The importance of weight is sacrosanct in such disciplines as while size is not everything, it’s the easiest to measure and sets the stage for a fair fight. Therefore, regulatory organisations try to make sure the fighters squaring off are around the same weight.

The tricky part, of course, is how much was Vinesh actually overweight by? The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) said in their statement: “Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50 kg this morning.” However, a report in Indian Express says that she was overweight by 2 kg at the end of her bouts on Tuesday, which could not be brought down throughout the night despite her and the support staff’s best efforts.

The incident prompted prime minister Narendra Modi to speak to IOA president P.T. Usha, seeking first hand information. In a prompt X post, Modi wrote: ‘’Vinesh, you are a champion among champions! You are India's pride and an inspiration for each and every Indian. Today’s setback hurts. I wish words could express the sense of despair that I am experiencing. At the same time, I know that you epitomise resilience. It has always been your nature to take challenges head-on. Come back stronger! We are all rooting for you.’’

No words can, however, alleviate the pain for Vinesh — who along with Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik — had been the faces of a protracted protest seeking the removal of Brij Bhushan Singh, the disgraced former president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). They had repeatedly sought Modi’s intervention in the crisis throughout last year, but were met with indifference.

The relationship between Vinesh and the WFI top brass had been a stormy one since then but the former had forced her way back into reckoning with a series of sensational performances.

An X post from her in April, just on the eve of Olympic qualifiers in April, was telltale: “Brij Bhushan and his dummy Sanjay Singh are trying in every way to stop me from playing in the Olympics. All the coaches who have been appointed with the team are the favourites of Brij Bhushan and his team, so it cannot be denied that they may mix something in my water and make me drink it during my match?”

Vinesh was also candid as ever during an interview with researchers from the Sports and Rights Alliance, an athletes’ rights organisation, about the ground reality in her sport. ‘’Indian society normalises abuse and harassment. They will only take it seriously when the assault is gruesome. But it it like how we fight a wrestling match. Whether we lost by one point or ten, we lose. Whether the assault is big or small, it’s an assault. An act against our will,’’ she had said.