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Vinesh Phogat’s coach Woller Akos details the wrestler’s gruelling weight-cutting process, where she attempted to lose an excess 2.7 kg but fell short by just 100 grams. read more
 "'Don’t intentionally write dramatic details'")
Vinesh Phogat missed out on an Olympic medal by being just 100 grams overweight. Reuters
Vinesh Phogat’s coach Woller Akos has finally opened up on the wrestler’s gruelling weight-cutting process during which he felt that the Indian athlete “might die”. Vinesh was overweight by 2.7kg after winning her semi-final bout in the 50kg category at Paris Olympics 2024 with the final scheduled for the next day.
The 29-year-old wrestler tried everything possible overnight to cut down her weight before the weigh-in but was disqualified after being 100 grams overweight.
Read | Vinesh Phogat’s appeal dismissal is no surprise, here’s why
In a Facebook post, Akos from Hungary detailed Vinesh’s intense struggle to lose excess weight and the fear it instilled in him. The Facebook post has been since taken down, reported the Indian Express.
“After the semi-final, 2.7 kg of excess weight was left; we exercised for one hour and twenty minutes, but 1.5 kg still remained. Later, after 50 minutes of sauna, not a drop of sweat appeared on her. There was no choice left, and from midnight to 5:30 in the morning, she worked on different cardio machines and wrestling moves, about three-quarters of an hour at one go, with two-three minutes of rest. Then she started again. She collapsed, but somehow we got her up, and she spent an hour in the sauna. I don’t intentionally write dramatic details, but I only remember thinking that she might die,” Woller Akos wrote.
He added that Vinesh put on a brave face after her disqualification, saying that while she did not win a medal, nobody can take away her performance.
“We had an interesting conversation that night, returning from the hospital. Vinesh Phogat said, ‘Coach, don’t be sad because you told me that if I find myself in any difficult situation and need extra energy, I should think that I beat the best woman wrestler (Japan’s Yui Susaki) in the world. I achieved my goal, I proved that I am one of the best in the world. We have proved that the gameplans work. Medals, podiums are just objects. Performance cannot be taken away’,” Akos added.
Vinesh Phogat loses medal appeal: Sad end to a sad saga, but don’t forget her fight
“We will still be proud of the fact that our professional programme could lead to beating the best woman wrestler in the world and take an Indian woman wrestler to the Olympic final for the first time in history,” he wrote underlining Vinesh’s win over world No.1 Yui Suaski in the first round.
This was Tokyo gold medallist Susaki’s first defeat in international wrestling.
Still, to highlight what the medal meant to Vinesh, Akos recalled her conversation with Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia during the wrestlers’ protest.
“Vinesh had pleaded with Sakshi and Bajrang to not put their hard-earned Olympic medals in the river. She begged them to keep those because they were special. But they explained to her that the journey was important and their performance was not defined by medals,” he said.
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English (US) ·