Vinesh Phogat has announced retirement from wrestling a day after her disqualification. Vinesh's announcement comes a day after she was disqualified from Paris Olympics 2024 owing to being 100 gms overweight. Right when she was aiming for gold after winning silver, the news of her disqualification left her shocked and disheartened.
Vinesh announces retirement
Vinesh took to social media to announce the news of her retirement and added that she has lost the courage to fight anymore. "Mother, wrestling won the bout, I lost. Forgive me as I have broken your dream, my courage. I don't have the will to fight anymore. Goodbye, wrestling. 2001 – 2024. I will forever be indebted," she wrote in a moving post.
PT Usha on Vinesh's disqualification
"After hearing the news that Vinesh Phogat is disqualified, I am shocked and disappointed. I had come here to meet Vinesh; she is physically and medically okay. Mentally, she is disappointed. Our support staff is with her, trying their best to help her reduce weight," PT Usha had said.
Dinshaw Pardiwala, Chief Medical Officer of the Indian Olympic contingent, revealed that Phogat weighed 2.7 kg more than the permissible weight. The coaches didn't let her sleep the entire night, cut her hair short and even shortened her clothes to bring down her weight. Vinesh also refrained from eating or drinking anything for 12 hours and kept on jogging, skipping and cycling to reduce weight. However, at the time of the final weighing, she was found to be 100 gms above the weight limit.
As per the United World Westling rules, "If an athlete does not attend or fails the weigh-in, he or she will be eliminated from the competition and ranked last without a ranking."
