From a high of being so close to winning a historic Olympic gold medal for the country, to not even eligible for any medal, and rather relegated to the bottom of the ranking in her weight category, destiny could not have been crueller on India’s star woman wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was disqualified for being 100 grams over the required 50 kg weight limit during the weigh-in on the morning of her gold medal bout.
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It might have initially felt like a horrible dream after a dream run, during which she pulled off one of the biggest wins of her career as she shocked four-time world champion and reigning gold-medallist Yui Susaki of Japan on points to enter the quarter-final.
But when the reality of the harsh and seemingly illogical Olympic rules, according to which even one gram overweight of the maximum weight permissible at the time of weigh-in on the morning of the bout/s is enough to disqualify an athlete from competing any further in his or her weight category, must have sunk in, it would have been heart-shattering for even the toughest of fighters as Vinesh is.
The deep sense of pain, sorrow and resignation to fate was quite palpable in the message addressed by her to her mother, and posted on her personal X handle, in which Vinesh, one of the sisters from among the famed six wrestling ‘Phogat Sisters’ of Haryana, announced her decision to quit wrestling.
Post on ‘X’
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“Maa, kushti mere se jeet gayi, mein haar gayi! Maaf karna! Aapka sapna, meri himmat, sabb toot chuke! Isse zyada taakat nahin rahi abb!
“Avlida kushti 2001-2024!
“Aap sabki hameshan rini rahongi. Maafi!
(Mother, wrestling got the better of me, I lost! Pardon me! Your dream, my grit, all have been shattered! Not left with more strength than this now!
“Goodbye Wrestling 2001-2024!
Will always remain indebted to you all. Pardon!”)
Appeal for arbitration
But as per latest reports, all is not lost for Vinesh.
Her appeal against her disqualification and being reinstated for the gold medal bout, which was later modified to appeal for being awarded a (shared) silver medal, was admitted by the Paris-based hoc committee of the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), which adjudicates on all legal disputes at the Olympics and other major world sports events.
India’s legal luminary Harish Salve and another senior lawyer Vidushpat Singhania represented Vinesh Phogat and IOA, which is supporting the wrestler’s appeal, before the sole arbitrator appointed by the CAS ad hoc committee. The decision on the arbitration is expected to be made before the conclusion of the Olympics on August 11.
CAS can decide on appeals within 24 hours in urgent matters. However, in exceptional cases the arbitrator appointed by the ad hoc committee of CAS can extend this time limit if the circumstances so demand.
While hope hangs by a thread pending a decision by CAS, Vinesh Phogat’s paternal uncle and award-winning wrestling coach Mahavir Phogat while appreciating the circumstances under which Vinesh took the extreme step of quitting the sport, said that on her return home the family together will try to persuade her to reconsider her decision and take another shot at the Olympics in 2028 at Los Angeles.
Mahavir Phogat has coached Vinesh, her sister Priyanka, and his own four daughters, Babita, Gita, Ritu and Sangeeta, all of whom have won international and national championships.
The Haryana government has also pitched in with its support for Vinesh with Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini declaring that the state government will honour and reward the gutsy wrestler commensurate with an Olympic silver medal winner.
Scars of humiliation
Whatever the outcome, Vinesh is apparently still nursing the mental scars of the pain, agony and humiliation suffered during her and her fellow wrestlers’ protest sit-ins organised by them at Jantar Mantar in the National capital last year to seek justice in charges of sexual harassment of women wrestlers.
The charges were levelled by six women wrestlers against then Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President and powerful multiple-times Member of Parliament (MP) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of the ruling BJP at the Centre. He is now facing a court trial in the matter.
The profile picture on Vinesh’s personal X account still carries a graphic representative of the agitation with a slogan reading ‘CHAMPIONS IN TEARS’ …. ‘I STAND WITH WRESTLERS’ on the lines of the ‘No Farmers No Food’ slogan coined by the agitating farmers and their supporters to oppose the contentious farm laws, which were later repealed.
The sexual harassment charges
The protesting wrestlers launched an agitation in January last year demanding removal of the then WFI president facing sexual harassment charges, and dissolution of the sports body.
During the long-drawn agitation, spearheaded by Vinesh Phogat, Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and top male wrestler Bajrang Punia, there were a couple of unsavoury clashes with the police. In one such clash, the police used force to thwart a protest march by a large crowd of protesting wrestlers and their supporters towards the new Parliament building, which was to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on that day.
Pictures of the wrestlers, including Vinesh and Sakshi, being manhandled and dragged away by the police had raised a public outcry and condemnation from the international sports fraternity.
Establishment shielded accused WFI chief
Despite the seriousness of the allegations, that too coming from some of the star women wrestlers of the country, the response from the entire establishment, including the BJP government at the Centre, remained rather partisan and cold towards the demands of the agitating wrestlers, apparently because of the involvement of a powerful ruling party MP. The Prime Minister also did not decisively intervene in the matter.
But when matters came to a head, after the aggrieved women wrestlers formally filed separate individual complaints against the WFI chief with the Delhi Police, and moved the Supreme Court, a FIR was registered against the accused.
Later, on the intervention of then Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, Brij Bhushan was forced to resign and the WFI dissolved, paving the way for Indian Olympic Association (IOA), led by Sprint Queen PT Usha, to form ad hoc committee to administer the body and oversee fresh elections.
But eventually when the much-delayed elections took place in December 2023, as expected Sanjay Singh, a close confidante of Brij Bhushan, won hands down and assumed the charge as WFI president.
Charges framed, trial began
Meanwhile in June 2023, the Delhi police filed a chargesheet in the court, which framed sexual harassment charges against the accused more than a year later in May this year stating that the court had found sufficient material on record to frame charges against Brij Bhushan Saran Singh for the offences under Section 354 (outraging modesty of woman) and 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code.
Brij Bhushan pleaded not guilty and claimed trail, which began in the court on July 26.
Following the adverse developments against Brij Bhushan, BJP denied him a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha 2024 elections from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh, a constituency he represented for three consecutive terms.
However, succumbing to pressures, the party was compelled to field his son Karan Bhushan Singh, president of the Uttar Pradesh Wrestling Association, from the seat. And, despite the overall crushing reverses suffered by the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh, which sends the highest number of members in the country to the Lok Sabha, he won the seat with more than 50% of the votes polled, though marginally short of the percentage of votes won by his father in the 2019 elections.
