Missed by a mere 100 gm! The disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat from the final bout in the 50-kg category was a big blow for India’s Olympic campaign. What could have been a gold medal was reduced to naught overnight, with the country waking up to the heartbreaking news. The rules were clear, and it’s not that stakeholders did not know about them. But the fracas, which robbed Vinesh of the medal she has been chasing for a decade, demands swift action to ensure such incidents never recur.
A few rushed to take credit when the 29-year-old wrestler stormed into the final, but all of them disappeared into thin air as soon as the news of disqualification broke. They, along with the Indian Olympic Association, Sports Authority of India (SAI), and Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), must reveal where things went wrong. It was SAI that sanctioned a posse of support staff, including a nutritionist and a psychologist, for the grappler, while IOA is the custodian of the Indian contingent in Paris; WFI looks after the sport in the country. What seems baffling is that in national competitions, the federation does not fully follow Olympic and world championship rules. The national events do not have two-day bouts; so Indian wrestlers are not well versed with the two-day weigh-in that eventually led to Vinesh’s disqualification.
Wrestlers shedding extra weight is a norm, and one can see hordes of them sweating out before the weigh-in. A wrestler usually gains about 1.5 kg, but in Vinesh’s case, it went beyond 2.5 kg. How and when that happened should be investigated. It’s also quite clear that women wrestlers get affected more by weight management, which once again calls for a separate rule for them. But there is a section that believes it can be avoided if wrestlers compete in their normal weight categories and avoid the lure of lower weight categories, where they get an edge.
Vinesh and Co. have appealed against the disqualification at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the decision of its appointed sole arbitrator is likely to come in a few days. Whether she is awarded a silver medal or not, it’s heartrending that Vinesh has decided to hang her gloves, saying, “Wrestling has won and I lost.”