United World Wrestling’s insistence on following rules may play into Vinesh Phogat’s hands in her appeal to be awarded silver

CAS to pronounce the verdict on Vinesh Phogat's appeal. (PTI Photo)

In the days since Vinesh Phogat was disqualified for being 100 grams overweight on the morning of the women’s 50kg freestyle wrestling final at the Paris Olympics, Nenad Lalovic, president of United World Wrestling (UWW), has consistently expressed his sympathy while saying that his organisation’s hands were tied by the rules being there in black and white. Now, with Dr Annabelle Bennett, the Australian representative from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), set to pronounce judgment on Vinesh’s appeal before 6pm Paris time on Tuesday (August 13), those rules could be the reason for a late twist in the tale.

UWW are right in saying that the tournament rules clearly state that a wrestler has to make the weight on both mornings of the event. Vinesh didn’t, so by the letter of the law, she was disqualified and placed last. But that’s where things take a strange turn. According to the rules, the repechage bouts – the winners of which get an opportunity to fight for bronze against the losing semi-finalists – are to be contested between the fighters who lost to the eventual finalists.

Japan’s Yui Susaki, the No. 1 seed whom Vinesh upset in the last 16, took part in the repechage and eventually won bronze. This would imply that Vinesh was regarded as a finalist. But the gold-medal bout was fought between the USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt and Cuba’s Yusneylys Guzman, who had lost to Vinesh in the semi-final. Going by the rules, Susaki shouldn’t have been in the repechage. If Vinesh was indeed last, one reperchange bout should have been between the wrestlers who lost to Guzman in the last 16 and the quarterfinal.

Vinesh’s legal team will argue that the UWW can’t have it both ways. If Vinesh was disqualified, her results scratched and placed last on the basis of rules, then it stands to reason that Susaki’s medal is invalid. That she fought the repechage and won bronze is almost like admitting that Vinesh made the final, and deserved at least silver.

Her representatives may also point to a health reason for her not making the weight. Having spent the entire night exercising, sweating in a sauna and even having her hair cut, Vinesh had become dangerously dehydrated by early morning. Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, the Indian contingent’s Chief Medical Officer, then insisted that any further efforts to lose weight be stopped because she was in real danger of going into hypovolemic shock.

Ironically, that argument could go against Vinesh as well. Since the beginning of this entire episode, UWW has insisted that the current rules are in place to ensure that wrestlers fight in their natural weight categories, rather than risk their health on the eve of bouts by trying to lose several kilograms. In Vinesh’s case, her handlers have themselves said that her natural weight is closer to 57kg. Her last major medal, at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, was in the 53kg category.

There’s no doubt that the high-profile legal team that India have assembled will leave no stone unturned to try and get Vinesh the medal her performances so obviously deserved. But if the verdict does go in her favour, it will open up a whole new can of worms for world wrestling.

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