India's star wrestler Vinesh Phogat missed out on a medal in the Paris Olympics. She reached the final of the 50 kg category, but was disqualified before the match. Vinesh was found to be 100 grams overweight. Vinesh Phogat is counted among the best wrestlers in the world. She has many medals to her name. She has been fighting in the 50 kg and 53 kg categories and who knows, if there was clarity about the rules, she would have participated in the 53 kg category in the Paris Olympics as well. These questions are being raised after Vinesh's statement in March this year.

Vinesh had won the 50 kg category trials for the Paris Olympics.

She had made it to the top-4 in the 53 kg category. Due to the opaqueness of the rules, she had given trials for two categories. It was not clear to her which category she could be a part of and thus her participation in the Olympics remained in her hands. This entire story is of March 12 this year.

In which kilogram did you participate in the Rio Olympics?

Vinesh Phogat participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 48kg category. This was her first Olympics. In 2018, she won the Asian Games gold medal in the 50kg weight category, but exactly a year later she won the bronze medal in the 53kg category at the 2019 World Championships.

The reason for this change was weight cutting, which she was struggling with.

To avoid the struggle of repeatedly cutting weight, Vinesh Phogat decided to become a 53 kg category wrestler after the Asian Games. She won a bronze medal in 53 kg at the 2022 World Championships. But her comeback was halted after she opened a front against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and due to injury.

clash with the final round

As we told you, after the Asian Games, Phogat had decided to fight in the 53 kg category.

During that time, Antim Panghal won the bronze medal in the 2023 World Championship, after which the way was cleared for India to play in the 53 kg category for the Paris Olympics. The previous rules of the Wrestling Federation of India had given the green signal to Antim Panghal for the Paris Olympics.

After this, Phogat was confused because at that time wrestling was being managed by an ad hoc committee in the country. The committee had promised that there would be trials for the 53 kg category. But after the elections of Wrestling Federation of India and Sanjay Singh becoming the president, the decision of the ad hoc committee was taken away from her.

Vinesh Phogat believed that the Wrestling Federation of India would not guarantee her participation in the 53 kg category. If this happened, Phogat could participate in 50 kg or 57 kg. Vinesh chose the 50 kg category. This was the category in which Phogat was last a part in the year 2018.

What did Phogat say?

29-year-old Phogat had then said that I had no clarity about the status of the 53 kg quota whether there would be trials or not. Usually the quota is won by the country but they had not held trials before.

The ad hoc committee said that this time it will not happen. I had no choice but to do this, as I have to participate in the Olympics. She confirmed that the decision to participate in the 50 kg category was to ensure that her dream of playing in the Paris Olympics remains alive.

Phogat usually weighs around 55-56 kg. It takes a lot of hard work to keep it at 50 kg for several days. That is why United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic said that it was not a matter of one kilo, but she had to cut down a large amount to reach the '100 grams' figure, which caused the problem.