Vinesh Phogat wins Paris Olympics quota: ‘It was a big health risk to drop down to 50kg, doctors advised against it’

But in her first international competition since September 2022, Phogat, a face of the protests against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the former Wrestling Federation of India president accused of sexual harassment, crushed Kazakhstan’s Laura Ganikyzy 10-0 in the semifinal of the 50-kg category. This won her the quota for the Olympics to be held from July 26 to August 11.

The 29-year-old didn’t concede a single point and needed a little more than six minutes to win the three bouts. “It’s been very difficult. At one stage, it felt impossible. But this is a job half done,” she told The Indian Express from Bishkek, where the Asian Qualifying Tournament is being held.

The Games were far from her mind on April 21, 2023, after six women wrestlers filed a police complaint against Brij Bhushan, the wrestling protests gained momentum and Phogat would be at the forefront for months.

The Paris dream looked further out of reach when another young, highly promising wrestler, Antim Panghal, won India an Olympic quota in the 53-kg category, which was Phogat’s pet weight class. In fact, not just the Olympics, Phogat’s wrestling future itself looked bleak when, attempting a comeback, she suffered a knee injury that required surgery.

But one of India’s most resilient athletes of this generation, Phogat, who weighed 59 kg when she began mat training in December, worked hard to drop to the lowest weight division of the Olympics — 50 kg — before defying all expectations to win a quota place.

Moments after Phogat’s win, Anshu Malik also clinched a quota win in the 57-kg category while under-23 world champion Reetika Hooda (76 kg) completed the hat-trick.

In what has been a prolonged period of gloom on the mat, and off it, for Indian wrestling, the women wrestlers provided a reason to smile. And no one smiled wider than Phogat, whose abilities were repeatedly questioned over the last 12 months by, among many, Brij Bhushan.

In an attempt to discredit the protests against him, Brij Bhushan and his supporters claimed that Vinesh, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik wanted direct entries for marquee events, a ‘demand’ he rejected.

After receiving a medal on Saturday, Phogat chose to talk about her comeback trail.

“A lot of people are responsible for where I am today. A team of six-seven people, with support from OGQ, ensured I got fit, I could reduce weight and ensured I could perform the way I did,” Phogat said, after she got the medal.

After the protests, when she decided to return to wrestling, Phogat said a team of experts got behind her. She sparred with male wrestlers to improve her strength, sports medicine experts routinely analysed her blood samples to monitor her recovery levels and coaches made shrewd tactical decisions that ensured she remained in control of her fate as far as Olympic qualification went.

This meant changing her weight category from 53 kg to 50 on the day of the domestic selection trials for the ongoing qualifiers. Her decision caused an uproar among the other wrestlers, who cried foul.

However, Phogat said the move was necessitated because India’s Antim Panghal had already won a spot in the 53-kg category and if the WFI, headed by Brij Bhushan’s close aide Sanjay Singh, later decided to send only the quota winners to Paris, her dream would end “right there”.

“It was a big health risk to drop down to 50 kg,” said Phogat, whose normal weight was around 56 kg. “I was advised against it by doctors because they feared it could lead to injuries. However, it was a do-or-die situation for me. I would have regretted it if I sat at home in a healthy state and saw the Olympics on TV. So, I decided to take a risk.”

Reducing the weight, it now seems, was her only real hurdle.

For, when she stepped on the mat in an international competition for the first time in almost 18 months, it felt like she was never away. Unless there’s another twist in a tale that has seen many twists, Vinesh Phogat will head for her third consecutive Olympic Games.