INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
File Image: Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat (Photo: PTI)3 min read Last Updated : Aug 08 2024 | 8:35 AM IST
Her long-cherished Olympic
dream shattered by a cruel twist of fate, Vinesh Phogat on Thursday bid adieu to her international wrestling career, saying she doesn't have
the strength to continue anymore.
The 29-year-old, who was disqualified for being 100gm overweight ahead of her 50kg category gold medal
bout in the olympics on Wednesday, announced her decision on social media, seeking forgiveness from everyone who supported her.
Addressing
her mother Premlata, Vinesh wrote, "Ma, wrestling has won, I have lost
Please forgive me, your dreams and my courage, everything is broken.""I don't have any more strength now
Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024
I shall be indebted to you all
Forgive (me)," added the two-time world championships bronze-medallist.
Her stunning decision comes a day after Vinesh appealed against
her disqualification from the Olympic finals on Wednesday in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a
joint silver medal.
An ad-hoc division of the CAS, which has been set up here for resolution of any disputes arising during the Olympic
Games or during a period of 10 days preceding the Opening Ceremony, will take up her appeal in the next few hours.
She spent a good part
of the day at a polyclinic inside the Games village owing to severe dehydration caused by her desperate measures to make the cut, which
included going hungry, avoiding fluids and staying up all night to sweat it out.
Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who lost to Vinesh
in the semifinals, replaced her in the final against American Sarah Ann Hildebrandt.
Hildebrandt won the bout to claim gold and Vinesh is
now banking on CAS to be a joint silver-medallist with Lopez.
However, the sport's international governing body, United World Wrestling
(UWW) has made it clear on its part that the current weigh-in rule will not be changed as of now.
"On IOA's suggestion that a wrestler's
results from the day on which the athlete met the weigh-in requirements should not be disqualified, the UWW President was
sympathetic.
"UWW will also discuss the suggestion at an appropriate platform but it could not be done retrospectively," the world body
said in a statement late on Wednesday after its President Nenad Lalovic met IOA chief P T Usha.
Vinesh had scripted history by becoming
the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the gold medal bout in her category on Tuesday night.
She was assured of at least a silver medal
before the disqualification.
Vinesh is a three-time Olympian and has won gold medals in both the Asian and Commonwealth Games.
For the
past one year, she had also been the face of fierce protests against former Wrestling Federation of India head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh,
who has been accused of sexual harassment by women grapplers.
Vinesh, who has always competed in the 53kg category, was forced to come
down to 50kg just months before the Games after the Paris quota place in that division was locked by Antim Panghal.
Panghal lost in the
opening round itself and is facing deportation after trying to facilitate her sister Nisha's access to the Games Village on her
accreditation card.First Published: Aug 08 2024 | 6:51 AMIST
