With hours to go before her gold medal bout on Wednesday, Vinesh Phogat stood on the scale: the figures on display were horrifying. For her 50kg category fight, she was 100gm overweight, leading to an automatic disqualification on perhaps the biggest day of her sporting career.
Dehydrated after three gruelling bouts on Tuesday, a desperate Vinesh merely had “small amounts of water”, cut her hair, and stayed up all night working out to ensure that she didn’t go over the prescribed limit for her weight.
It wasn’t enough and no amount of pleading by the Indian officials to get her some more time to shed those 100gm could change the rules.
So that’s how it stayed, ending the 29-year-old’s resilient run during which she took down the reigning gold-medallist only to be beaten by her own battered body.
As she recovered from the emotional and physical trauma of the turn of events at a polyclinic in the Olympic Games Village, a slugfest ensued in far away Delhi where politicians traded barbs on just who was responsible for the mess.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered her support, calling her a “champion among champions” in a social media post, and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya declared that a “strong protest” had been lodged with the international body –United World Wrestling (UWW).
The opposition parties, however, sensed a conspiracy in the shocking reversal of fortunes for the wrestler, who was, till recently, the face of a fierce protest against “government inaction” on the sexual harassment allegations against former Wrestling Federation of India head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
INDIA bloc MPs even held a protest on Parliament premises.
But amid all the drama, a dream lay shattered and a country stood shocked with many unable to fathom just how could things go this bad for Tuesday’s showstopper in a matter of hours.
From going to sleep as an assured silver-medallist if not a gold-winner, Vinesh woke up, went for weigh-ins and came back to find herself empty-handed in an Olympics, yet again.
This was her third Games appearance. The first in Rio 2016 ended with her being stretchered off due to a career-threatening injury, while the second outing in Tokyo also halted painfully with an unexpected early loss.
“We are providing Vinesh all medical and emotional support,” Indian Olympic Association President P T Usha said in a statement.
She was later seen putting her hand on Vinesh’s shoulder as she sat upright on her bed at the Games Village clinic. Vinesh managed to smile for that moment.
“The Wrestling Federation of India has filed an appeal to UWW to reconsider the decision to disqualify Vinesh and IOA is following that up in the strongest possible manner,” Usha said.
The protests and appeals can continue but the cold fact was that Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who lost to Vinesh in the semifinals, replaced her in the final.
Contingent’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala wore a dejected look as he tried to explain the process of weight cutting. He said that every possible trick was used to ensure that Vinesh could be within the prescribed limit.
“The process of weight cut involves a calculated restriction of food and water along with sweating from exercises and sauna till the morning weigh-in. This weight cut causes weakness and energy depletion, which is counter-productive to participation,” he said.
“…for energy restoration, limited water and high energy foods are given after weigh-in. Vinesh’s nutritionist had calculated this to be 1.5 kg. There sometimes is also a rebound weight gain following competition,” he added.
Pardiwala revealed that Vinesh’s post participation weight had increased on Tuesday night and drastic measures were taken to save the situation.
“…including cutting off her hair. However, she was not below her allowed weight of 50kg,” he said.
International rules stipulate that any grappler found overweight at the time of weigh-in ends up at the bottom of the final standings.
It is a particularly devastating result given that she had taken down defending champion and unbeaten till Tuesday, Yui Susaki of Japan, en route the finals in a remarkable performance.
Vinesh’s ouster means that the 50kg category will offer only one bronze medal in the Games as against the usual two, which are decided after bouts between the losing semifinalists and the two repechage round winners.
The Indian wrestling contingent was expectedly oscillating between anger and despair.
“Everyone here is feeling as if someone in the family has died. We don’t know what has struck us. Everyone is shocked,” India’s national women’s coach Virender Dahiya said.
The coaching staff led by Dahiya met her at the polyclinic after she felt a bit better and revealed that the tenacious grappler seems to have made peace with the situation having given everything she had to stay in the fight.
The Wrestling Federation of India, which had spared no effort in trying to paint Vinesh’s protest as a politically driven campaign, claimed that her personal support staff, which had been her rock through the entire turbulence, ought to be held accountable.
In the line of fire is her long-standing Hungarian coach Woller Akos among other support staff.
“They should have paid attention to her all the time to ensure nothing of this sort happens…how she went over the weight limit must be looked into. I request the Government of India to take action against all those responsible,” WFI President Sanjay Singh, a close aide of Brij Bhushan, told PTI.
Singh also shared a letter he sent to UWW, requesting for a reconsideration of the “disproportionate disqualification”.
Vinesh’s natural body weight is about 56-57kg and it takes massive effort for her to get down to 50kg.
She had been competing in the 53kg category past several years but lost to Antim Panghal in the trials.
Panghal subsequently won the Olympic quota in this division, forcing Vinesh to go further down.
While in invitational tournaments, UWW allows for a grace of upto 2kg, no such relaxation exists for showpieces like Olympics, the world championships and the Asian Championships.
Vinesh had stated before the Games that it would be her final outing in the quadrennial showpiece and it remains to be seen if she would change her mind after this setback.
Her uncle and Dronacharya awardee wrestling coach Mahavir Phogat certainly believes she will. (Agencies)
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