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Vinesh Phogat announced her decision on social media a day after getting disqualified from the women’s 50kg wrestling final at Paris Olympics read more
 "'Wrestling beat me, I've lost... my courage is broken'")
India's Vinesh Phogat reacts after defeating Cuba's Yusneylys Guzman to advance to the women's 50kg final in the Paris Olympics. AP
Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement from wrestling a day after she was disqualified from the women’s 50kg event at the Paris Olympics for being overweight by a mere 100 grams.
Paris Olympics: News, schedule, medals tally and more
Vinesh had stormed into the final of the women’s 50kg final, ending Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Yui Susaki’s 82-match winning streak along the way. While Vinesh had passed the weight check on the opening day of her matches, she had gained weight after her bouts and was found to be overweight despite resorting to drastic measures such as cutting her hair and drawing blood.
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),” Vinesh wrote on X in the early hours of Thursday.
माँ कुश्ती मेरे से जीत गई मैं हार गई माफ़ करना आपका सपना मेरी हिम्मत सब टूट चुके इससे ज़्यादा ताक़त नहीं रही अब।
अलविदा कुश्ती 2001-2024 🙏
आप सबकी हमेशा ऋणी रहूँगी माफी 🙏🙏
Vinesh would file an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against her disqualification, asking for her to be awarded the joint-silver medal. The Lausanne-based body is likely to deliver a verdict on Thursday.
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.
The wrestler 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 PT Usha.
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.
(with inputs from PTI)
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