Vinesh Phogat's disqualification brings to fore the less talked about problem of weight category switch

Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from Paris Olympics over being overweight.

Vinesh Phogat’s medal, if she had contested in the final of the 50kg women’s freestyle wrestling in the ongoing Paris Olympics, would have been India’s eighth in the discipline in all Olympics. She would have been the second Indian woman, after Sakshi Malik’s bronze in 2016 Rio de Janeiro, to get a wrestling medal in the quadrennial event.

But Phogat’s disqualification, on the back of weighing more than the prescribed limit for her weight category, highlights an aspect of the sport that’s seldom a matter of discussion. Wins get medals and accolades; it’s the unconventional exits that sheds light on the struggles.

Wrestlers usually train at a body weight that’s 5-6 kilograms over the weight category they are competing in. The reason is to achieve the maximum amount of strength, stamina they need to succeed. It is only closer to competition that they drop their weight under the permitted limit. Once the competition ends, it’s back to building strength and muscle.

Till early this year, Phogat was participating in the 53kg weight category. Her normal weight ranges about 55-56kgs, which makes it relatively easier for her to drop down to 53 before an event. Since Antim Panghal qualified for the Olympics first in the 53kg category, while Phogat was recovering from an ACL surgery, and only one wrestler per category from a country can compete at the Games, Phogat had two options: she could cut down drastically to enter the 50kg category or move up in weight, which would mean wrestling against much stronger athletes, explains Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, India’s chief medical officer at the Olympics. After considerable thought, Phogat decided to drop down.

Wrestlers, when training, don’t want to be below their natural weight because that increases the chances of an injury, Dr Pardiwala elaborated on Jio Cinema that’s telecasting the Olympics. The highly physical, contact sport of wrestling naturally leads to injuries, which makes it imperative for the athletes to find the right balance.

It’s relatively easier for a wrestler to drop weight during the first weigh-in of a competition because there is enough time to do so. Phogat had three bouts on Tuesday: she beat Japan’s Yui Susaki, then Ukraine’s Oksana Livach soon after in the afternoon, followed by a win over Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez in the semi-final later in the evening. During this time, she would have had to hydrate herself, do everything she could to perform well that day, and then tackle the next challenge: losing weight. She gained two-and-a-half kilos during the day’s replenishments, which had to be shed before the next day’s weigh-in.

“Within the means of medical safety, we were going to do everything we could to cut that weight, so the process started immediately,” Dr. Pardiwala says. “She had not a morsel of food, no sips of water, and her entire team, which has done this in the past, was taking care of the process.”

Phogat stayed awake the whole night, sweating it out on the treadmill and sauna, but was still heavier by 100 grams, which is roughly the weight of a banana or a couple of eggs.

The criticality of weight in choosing the fight category and in the immediacy of the upcoming bout is not new or unusual in sports such as wrestling and boxing. Two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar once advised on YouTube that wrestlers should plan to lose 200-400 grams per day so that only about 500 grams remains to be adjusted on the day of weighing in. “If you reduce 2-4 kg in a day, your mind won’t work well,” he had said.

Sushil Kumar, who won a silver medal in the 66kg category at the 2012 London Olympics and a bronze in Beijing 2008, had to shift categories for Rio 2016. The Olympic classifications changed from 55kg, 60kg, 66kg, 74kg (in London) to 57kg, 65kg, 74kg (in Rio). He did not qualify for the 2016 Olympics.

“It would be difficult for me to compete in the 65kg category,” Kumar told the Press Trust of India then. “For me, it would be difficult to adjust to the new weight category. It’s not easy to lose even a kilogram with the Olympics in mind. I have the option of moving to a higher category.”

Malik, who won a bronze medal in the 58kg weight category in Rio 2016, also competed in the 60kg and 62kg categories in an unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Boxer M C Mary Kom shifted from the 48kg category to 51kg (flyweight) for the 2012 London Olympics, where women’s boxing made its debut in only three weight categories. Mary Kom had to make the change so that she could participate in the Olympics, and returned with a bronze medal. Fellow boxer Nikhat Zareen, a world champion in the flyweight, dropped down to 50kg (light fly) to win a gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

She explained that the challenge in doing that comes in having to work harder to cut down two kilograms but also not let up on speed and power. “I had not eaten in the last two days for weight cut (sic),” Zareen said after losing early in the Paris Olympics last week. “I had not recovered and played first bout. If I had won, my effort would have been appreciated but it will now look like excuse. I gave my best.”

The changes in weight—over time or overnight—affect the long-term health of the athlete, in addition to their ability to perform on the mat while being underfed and dehydrated. The 100 grams of weight that Phogat couldn’t shed cost her the six grams of gold she could have won by reaching the final.