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Indian Wrestler Vinesh Phogat Cut Hair, Drew Blood in Desperate Bid to Make Olympic Final but Was 100 Gm Overweight
Vinesh Phogat chopped her hair, bled blood, and refused to sleep or drink water in an attempt to lose weight, but nothing could save her from being disqualified from the Paris Olympics.
Vinesh Phogat's coaches and support team went to great lengths to get her weight under the 50kg limit before the official weigh-in ahead of her historic gold medal match against Sarah Hildebrandt of the United States on Wednesday at the Paris Olympics 2024, but it wasn't enough.
Vinesh, who made history as India's first female wrestler to reach an Olympic final, was disqualified hours before her gold medal battle after failing the weigh-in. Vinesh was allegedly 100gm overweight, exceeding the allowable 50kg limit for her weight group. As a result, she was disqualified from the tournament and given no rank, making her victory on Tuesday null and invalid.
Vinesh Phogat did not secure the silver medal, which seemed assured after she reached the finals. According to 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."
According to the technical representative for United World Wrestling, the bronze medal match will be between Japanese Yui Susako and Ukrainian Oksana Livach in the repechage round.
“Vinesh failed [the] second-day weigh-in. According to article 11 of the International Wrestling Rules, Vinesh will be replaced by the wrestler who lost against her in the semi-final,” the delegate stated. “Therefore, Guzman Lopez Yusneylis will compete in the final. Repechage Susaki Yui vs Livach Oksana will become a bronze medal match.”
However, Vinesh's coaches went above and above to support her cause. According to the India Express, the 29-year-old cleared the weigh-in before her event on Tuesday morning but was discovered to be 2kg overweight later that night.
To add to Vinesh's worry, the coaches did not allow her to sleep all night. To lose weight, she fasted for more than 12 hours and engaged in intense jogging, skipping, and cycling.
When all else failed, The Sportstar stated that the coaches chopped Vinesh's hair and "attempted to draw out blood, but their efforts did not yield the desired results."
Vinesh became weakened, fragile, and dehydrated as a result of the harsh measures. She was brought to a medical center inside the Olympic Village after feeling dizzy and losing consciousness for a short while.
Cutting weight is a difficult procedure that wrestlers must go through if their natural body weight exceeds the class in which they compete. Vinesh's normal body weight is between 56 and 57kg, and it takes a lot of work to go down to 50kg.
Two days before the weigh-in, athletes competing in contact sports go without food or water. Boxer Nikhat Zareen stated after her defeat in Paris that she went two days without eating or drinking to keep inside the weight limit, and as a result, she lost power.
Hers wasn't the only weight-related disqualification in the 50kg division. On Tuesday, Italy's Emanuela Liuzzi was also forced to forfeit her preliminary match due to being overweight.
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