Former Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat silenced tens of millions of her critics by defeating the world No. 1 and reigning Olympic champion Yui Susaki on the 2024 Paris Olympics. Vinesh additionally scripted historical past by turning into India’s first lady wrestler to enter the finals of the Olympic Video games. Nevertheless, in a heartbreaking twist of story, Vinesh was disqualified on the morning of her gold medal match for being 100 grams chubby. This not solely put her out of the gold medal match, but additionally denied her the chance to win silver.
Vinesh additionally filed an attraction to the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the place she had requested to be awarded joint-silver within the Ladies’s50kg occasion.
Nevertheless, earlier this week, her plea was dismissed by the CAS, whereas the small print of their verdict is predicted to come back out later this month.
In a now-deleted Fb put up, Woller Akos, Vinesh’s coach at Paris Olympics, stated he feared that the wrestler “would possibly die” by the tip of the five-and-a-half hours of intense weight-cut.
“After the semi-final, 2.7 kg of extra weight was left; we exercised for one hour and twenty minutes, however 1.5 kg nonetheless remained. Later, after 50 minutes of sauna, not a drop of sweat appeared on her. There was no alternative left, and from midnight to five:30 within the morning, she labored on completely different cardio machines and wrestling strikes, about three-quarters of an hour at one go, with two-three minutes of relaxation. Then she began once more. She collapsed, however in some way we acquired her up, and he or she spent an hour within the sauna. I do not deliberately write dramatic particulars, however I solely keep in mind considering that she would possibly die,” Akos wrote in a put up which he later deleted.
For the unversed, Vinesh was hospitalised on the morning of her last bout on account of dehydration. Woller additionally make clear what Vinesh instructed him whereas they had been coming back from the hospital.
“We had an attention-grabbing dialog that night time, coming back from the hospital. Vinesh Phogat stated, ‘Coach, do not be unhappy since you instructed me that if I discover myself in any tough scenario and wish further vitality, I ought to assume that I beat the very best lady wrestler (Japan’s Yui Susaki) on this planet. I achieved my purpose, I proved that I’m top-of-the-line on this planet. We’ve got proved that the gameplans work. Medals, podiums are simply objects. Efficiency can’t be taken away’,” he added.
“Vinesh had pleaded with Sakshi and Bajrang to not put their hard-earned Olympic medals within the river. She begged them to maintain these as a result of they had been particular. However they defined to her that the journey was necessary and their efficiency was not outlined by medals. We are going to nonetheless be happy with the truth that our skilled programme might result in beating the very best lady wrestler on this planet and take an Indian lady wrestler to the Olympic last for the primary time in historical past,” Akos signed off.
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