How do most wrestlers spend the night before they grapple in an Olympic final? In most cases, they have to fight at least three bouts to make it that far. After such exertions, they 'refuel', perhaps get a massage or an icing down, and then make sure they get their hours of sleep. Instead of any of this, Vinesh Phogat spent the hours after her semi-final win against Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba skipping rope, cycling, having her hair cut and sweating it out in the sauna in the wee hours of the morning to try and get her weight back down to 50kg. Even if she hadn't been disqualified for being 100g overweight, it's doubtful whether Vinesh would have been in any shape to fight the USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt in the final.
But this most bizarre story of these Paris Olympics doesn't end there. Less than three hours after Vinesh had been disqualified, Antim Panghal – India's representative in the 53kg category where Vinesh had won Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 – was overpowered 10-0 by Turkey's Zeynep Yetgil in just 101 seconds. The 10-0 margin, considered ‘technical superiority’, is the most one-sided possible. Antim, who had come to the Games as the Indian grappler most likely to win a medal, looked a pale shadow of her usual energetic self, and the Turkish wrestler tossed her around the mat almost at will.
Vinesh Phogat disqualified from Paris Olympics: A complete explainer on wrestling weigh-in rules
The latest twist in the tale suggests that Antim too struggled to make her weight, and needed to practically starve herself for the better part of 48 hours to make the 53kg limit. RevSportz reported that the ordeal left her totally drained and bereft of energy. She left the mat in tears and didn’t engage with journalists in the mixed zone.
The sorry episode raises multiple questions about the competence of the support staff. Vinesh, for example, originally competed in the 48kg category, winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (2014) and reaching the quarterfinals at the Rio Olympics before a knee-ligament tear saw her stretchered off in agony. By the next Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018, she was wrestling at 50kg. By the time she won a third successive Commonwealth gold in Birmingham in 2022, she was up to the 53kg class.
Unlike the average person on the street, weight gain for an athlete almost always means more muscle mass. Dropping down a weight class as Vinesh did to compete in Paris involves striking the most delicate balance. You have to lose the weight without losing the muscle tone that gives you your strength. During the protests against the Wrestling Federation of India in 2023, Vinesh was out of training for months. So, she ended up having to lose far more than three kilos to finally make the weight in Paris.
In Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan last April, she had needed three stints inside a red-hot sauna to somehow make the weight before the qualifying tournament. Lessons could have been learned then. Most athletes who compete in a weight category make sure they leave a sufficient buffer, tipping the scales at 49.4 or 49.5kg at best. Vinesh had weighed in at almost exactly 50kg on Tuesday morning.
The recovery meal and hydration ended up taking her weight closer to 53, whereas her support staff had banked on it being closer to 51.5. And despite a night-long effort that left her dehydrated and crying from muscular cramps, she couldn’t bring the weight back down. Each wrestler is given 15 minutes during the weigh-in to try whatever last-ditch measures they can. Even those couldn’t shed the last 100g.
That India have potentially lost two medals – a certain one in Vinesh's case – should give the sports fraternity plenty of food for thought. Both Vinesh and Antim are blameless here. Almost every athlete follows the instructions their handlers give them. It’s those that miscalculated so badly or thought they could cut it so fine that need to give a shocked nation some answers.
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