India wrestler loses an Olympic medal over her weight : NPR

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Vinesh Phogat’s dream of successful India’s first gold medal on the Paris Olympics resulted in what for wrestlers is a nightmare state of affairs: She didn’t make weight for the ladies’s 50-kilogram class ultimate. After initially successful an opportunity for a gold or silver medal, her disqualification means she’s going to go away France and not using a medal of any kind.

Phogat later introduced her retirement from the game, saying, “Mother, wrestling has defeated me, I misplaced. Forgive me, your dream, my braveness is all damaged, I don’t have any extra energy now,” based on a translation by The Hindu newspaper. The athlete turns 30 years outdated later this month.

Phogat was discovered to be 100 grams over the restrict — about 3.5 ounces, much like a deck of playing cards — based on the Indian Olympic Affiliation. After having three bouts on Tuesday, her weight was discovered to have elevated a bit greater than regular, the affiliation’s chief medical officer, Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, mentioned on Wednesday.

Phogat had a profitable weigh-in on Tuesday morning, Pardiwala said, and her nutritionist calculated that she might have round 1 1/2 kilograms of water and meals. She additionally drank small quantities of water after her matches.

However when workers checked her weight, it was over the restrict. The athlete’s common methods for slicing weight weren’t profitable, Pardiwala mentioned.

“We had tried all attainable drastic measures all through the night time, together with slicing off her hair, shortening her garments,” Pardiwala mentioned. However to no avail.

It was a merciless approach to finish what had appeared to be a charmed run to the gold medal match, as Phogat delivered a string of victories over extremely ranked opponents. After two heartbreaking Olympics — a horrible knee damage ended her Rio 2016 marketing campaign, and a stunning upset ousted her in Tokyo — she was lastly on observe to win the medal many have seen as her future.

Her disqualification “may be very stunning,” mentioned Indian Olympic Affiliation President PT Usha, who met with Phogat within the Olympic Village on Wednesday.

“We’re offering Vinesh all medical and emotional assist,” Usha mentioned, including that India’s wrestling federation has filed an enchantment asking that the disqualification be reconsidered.

An Olympic medal would have been one thing of a salve to a yr of turmoil in India’s wrestling group. Final summer season, Phogat took on a outstanding function in high-profile protests in opposition to sexual harassment, as she and different high wrestlers known as for motion in opposition to then-Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Singh, an influential politician who was additionally as soon as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

Vinesh Phogat (middle) and different elite Indian wrestlers have been detained by the police in New Delhi final yr as they protested in opposition to Brij Bhushan Singh, who was then the wrestling federation chief, over allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation.

Arun Thakur/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

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Arun Thakur/AFP by way of Getty Pictures

As NPR reported final yr, Singh was “accused by the nation’s seven most high-profile wrestlers, together with a minor, of groping them, stalking them, demanding sexual favors and threatening them in the event that they refuse to entertain his advances.”

Singh has denied the allegations. Within the New Delhi protests in opposition to him, Phogat and different elite athletes have been confronted by police who dragged them away and detained them.

After Wednesday’s abrupt elimination derailed Phogat’s likelihood for an Olympic medal, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said via X, “Vinesh, you’re a champion amongst champions! You might be India’s delight and an inspiration for each Indian.”

Acknowledging a “sense of despair” over the result, Modi added, “On the similar time, I do know that you just epitomise resilience. It has at all times been your nature to take challenges head on.”

On the Paris Video games, Phogat defeated a roster of champions in a single day to earn a spot in opposition to Staff USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt in Wednesday’s ultimate. In her first match, she upset the reigning Olympic champion, Yui Susaki of Japan. She then beat former European champion Oksana Livach of Ukraine within the quarterfinals and Pan American Video games champion Yusneylis Guzman of Cuba within the semifinals.

Due to Phogat’s disqualification, Guzman was elevated to the ultimate to face Hildebrandt. The American received the gold.

Phogat comes from a household well-known for its feminine wrestlers: her cousins’ story impressed the Bollywood movie Dangal, from Walt Disney’s India subsidiary. She has additionally spoken out in favor of empowering ladies and giving them extra assist to pursue sports activities.

She informed The Hindu information outlet in 2018, “most significantly, ladies want to face up for what they need to do. It’s not nearly sports activities — even in any other case, in schooling or in life, ladies must cease feeling pity for themselves or contemplating themselves weak. You need to have the energy of perception in your self. Step one must be taken by a lady herself; every part else follows.”

When she’s injury-free, Phogat racked up wins on the mat from an early age. She took bronze on the world championships and high titles on the Commonwealth Video games and the Asian championships. Her outcomes, typically in weight classes a bit heavier than 50kg, have lengthy fueled hopes for Olympic greatness that, due to round 100 grams, now stay unfulfilled.