Don’t have strength for more: Vinesh Phogat announces retirement a day after Olympics disqualification

PTI, Aug 8, 2024, 8:20 AM IST

Paris: Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has announced retirement after her heartbreaking disqualification from the Olympics, saying she doesn’t have the strength to continue.

The 29-year-old, who was disqualified for being 100gm overweight ahead of her 50kg category gold medal bout on Wednesday, posted on X to announce her decision.

Addressing her mother Premlata, Vinesh wrote, “Ma, wrestling has won, I have lost. Please forgive me, your dreams and my courage, everything is broken.”

“I don’t have any more strength now. Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. I shall be indebted to you all. Forgive (me),” added the two-time world championships bronze-medallist.

Vinesh appealed against her disqualification from the Olympic finals on Wednesday in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a joint silver medal.

She spent a good part of the day at a polyclinic inside 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.

An ad-hoc division of the CAS has been set up here for resolution by arbitration of any disputes arising during the Olympic Games or during a period of 10 days preceding the Opening Ceremony. Her appeal will be taken up in the next few hours.

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.

However, the sport’s international governing body, United World Wrestling (UWW) has made it clear on its part that the current weigh-in rule cannot be changed as of now.

“On IOA’s suggestion that a wrestler’s results from the day on which the athlete met the weigh-in requirements should not be disqualified, the UWW President was sympathetic.

“UWW will also discuss the suggestion at an appropriate platform but it could not be done retrospectively,” the world body said in a statement late on Wednesday after its President Nenad Lalovic met IOA chief P T Usha.

Vinesh had scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the gold medal bout in her category on Tuesday night.

She was assured of at least a silver medal before the disqualification.

Vinesh is a three-time Olympian and has won gold medals in both the Asian and Commonwealth Games.