Saachi Baat Special
On the eve of Independence Day, the nation felt sad and sorry, Vinesh Phogat’s pending case with the CAS – Court for Arbitration in Sports – dismissed her plea for a silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics after she had been disqualified on August 6. The repeated hearings from CAS in Paris, where the best legal brains has been hired by India, was futile. On Wednesday night, the CAS came out with a terse statement, Vinesh Phogat plea was dismissed.
As much as this is an emotional decision which has shocked not just the sports fraternity but Indians at large, fact remains, blame-game will not help at this moment. Vinesh, herself, has opted for retirement, having made three attempts at winning medals in the Olympics – Rio 2016, Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024. She will return to India on August 17. The most difficult attempt at winning a medal one was in Paris, where she had attempted cutting her weight drastically and weigh-in at 50kg. She did achieve that on the first day of the competition, where she shocked Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Yui Susaki. She then went on to make the final.
It was only on the weigh-in on the second day, Vinesh’s dreams went bust. She had gained weight by over 4 kilos, where the exact figure is not available. By all accounts available from the IOA medical team led by Dr Dinshaw Pardwiwala and IOA President PT Usha, all attempts were made to bring her weight down. That Vinesh Phogat was overweight by 100gm was hard to digest. She had starved herself the previous night, even stopped drinking water. All those attempts were dangerous and not good for her health. Yet, she tried and then failed by 100gm.
A blame-game is easy but that will not bring back a silver medal for Vinesh, whose dream has gone bust. In sports like boxing, weightlifting and wrestling, weigh-in is important. In weightlifting, the entire programme ends in one day. No, not in wrestling, where the world body (UWW) has made it mandatory there will be two weigh-ins, on each morning. All these rules were well-known. This is where the entire medical team of Vinesh Phogat, which consists of coaches, physios, sparring partners and the diet/nutrition expert of Vinesh had bungled. Yes, OGQ (Olympic Gold Quest) has been left red-faced, and they did not even bother to consult the other experts in Paris.
Ironically, another wrestler from Delhi, Aman Sehrawat, was also overweight by 4.5kg before his bronze medal bout. His team of coaches had done everything from sparring on the mat again to gym and sauna to bring his weight-down successfully. In the end, Aman won a bronze medal and brought cheer to Team India.
Sadly, the people closest to Vinesh Phogat from OGQ – Olympic Gold Quest – have gone into “silent mode.” They are the ones who messed it up, big time.
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