Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat was disqualified on Wednesday from the women’s 50 kg event hours before her gold-medal bout against American Sarah Hildebrand at the Champ-de-Mars Arena after being found slightly overweight. This came as a shock to the nation as Phogat had made history by becoming the first Indian woman to reach an Olympic wrestling final. As the ace grappler’s campaign at the Games ended in heartbreak, many social media users shared messages of support for the wrestler, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling her a “champion of champions”. Some were even curious to know if the wrestler from Haryana will get the medal or not.
Team India shared the heartbreaking news on X, stating, “It is with regret that the Indian contingent shares news of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the Women’s Wrestling 50kg class.”
Read| Vinesh Phogat Gets Internet’s Love After Paris Olympics Disqualification: ‘100 Gm Extra From Invisible Medal’
“Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning. No further comments will be made by the contingent at this time. The Indian team requests you respect Vinesh’s privacy. It would like to focus on the competitions on hand,” the statement further read.
After the news of her disqualification broke, Vinesh Phogat started trending on Google in India, with the top query being “Will Vinesh Phogat get a medal?”
(Google Trends)
To answer this, we went through the international wrestling rules laid by the United World Wrestling in its rulebook. According to the rules, Phogat will return to India without a medal and be assigned the lowest ranking in the competition.
“If an athlete does not attend or fail the weigh-in (the 1st or the 2nd weigh-in), he will be eliminated of the competition and ranked last, without rank (Exception: cf. Article 56 – Medical Service Intervention),” says Article 11 of the rulebook.
It is to be noted that until yesterday she was assured of at least a silver medal.
“100 gm” is also trending in India on X (formerly Twitter) after the 29-year-old wrestler was found to be overweight by 100 gm.
Also Read| Vinesh Phogat Disqualified From Paris Olympics For Failing to Make Weight; To Finish Last Without Rank
As per reports, Phogat was two kilograms above her weight the night before the weigh-in. In a frantic effort to meet the criteria, she resorted to extreme measures including jogging, cycling and skipping. The Indian contigent even took the extreme route of cutting her hair and trying to draw blood, but she was still found slightly above the permissible limit.
Phogat defeated defending champion Yui Susaki of Japan on Tuesday to secure her place in the final against American Sarah Ann Hildebrandt. Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who lost to Phogat in the semifinals, replaced her in the gold-medal bout. Phogat’s disqualification also impacted the medal distribution.
“Vinesh failed second day weigh-in. According to the article 11 of the International Wrestling Rules, Vinesh will be replaced by the wrestler who lost against her in the Semifinal. Therefore Yusneylis Guzman Lopez will compete in the Final,” the Paris Games organising committee said in a statement.
“Repechage Yui Susaki vs Oksana Livach (Ukraine) will become Bronze Medal Match,” it added.
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