Vinesh Phogat (Image: AFP)
The 29-year-old had just scripted history the previous night by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the gold medal bout in her category.
“It’s part of the game.” These were the words uttered by the heartbroken yet humble Vinesh Phogat, who unfortunately lost out on her chance to claim Olympic Gold for India, after failing to make weight for her final bout in the Women’s 50kg Freestyle event on Wednesday.
Phogat was disqualified on Wednesday from the Paris Olympics after being found overweight ahead of her final bout, leaving her medal-less within hours of coming close to an unparalleled gold.
The 29-year-old had just scripted history the previous night by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the gold medal bout in her category.
Before this morning, she was assured of at least a silver medal but will now be coming back empty-handed due to the disqualification.
It wasn’t for a lack of effort from Phogat though, who entailed in an intense workout and routine in order to shed the extra weight throughout the entirety of last night to make the cut at the second weigh-in.
Hours of intense physical workouts, followed by dehydrating herself and to even cutting her own hair to shed more weight, Phogat did it all.
Nobody knows more about the immense effort that Phogat had exerted in her attempt to salvage her bout than Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, Chief Medical Officer of the Indian Contingent.
“We tried our best to try and get that weight down. When she couldn’t sweat anymore, we even had to go to some drastic measures like cutting off her hair…If we maybe had a few hours more we could have achieved that 100 grams, but we just didn’t have that time,” stated Dr. Pardiwala.
But all it led was despair, as the shattered 29-year-old had to be taken to the polyclinic inside the Games village due to severe dehydration earlier in the day in a desperate attempt to shed the extra weight in time to compete.
Following it all, women’s national coach Virender Dahiya and Manjeet Rani met Phogat to extend their support to the history-maker.
“It sent a shockwave through the wrestling contingent. The girls were feeling pretty low after the news broke. We met Vinesh and tried to console her. She was brave. She told us, ‘it’s hard luck that we missed the medal, but it is part of the game’,” Dahiya said, sharing the details of their meeting to PTI.
“Several IOA officials were also there to meet her.”
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