Last year in Paris, wrestler Vinesh Phogat walked away from the mat in tears — broken, empty, undone. She didn’t just lose an Olympic medal, she came home with a brutal heartbreak and announced her retirement.
Sixteen months later, India’s gutsiest athlete — who took on the system, then took down the world’s best wrestler in her category and reached the final of the Paris Olympics, where she was disqualified for missing weight — said Friday that she has returned to the mat.
“I don’t think I am over it yet,” Vinesh told The Indian Express, referring to Paris, where she had entered the final of the 50 kg event but was disqualified on the day of the bout after weighing 100 grams over the limit. “But I didn’t want it to be my end.”
Vinesh, 31, said she has resumed training and is “stepping back toward Los Angeles 2028 with a heart that’s unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow.” But the biggest motivation behind her comeback, she said, is the thought of her four-month-old son, Kridhav, her “little cheerleader” as she calls him, one day watching her compete — and win.
“It’ll be an amazing feeling if my son, who will be three by the time of the LA Olympics, can watch me play at a big tournament and watch me win,” Vinesh said. “You know, I imagine a scenario where, if I’m there at the 2028 Olympics, he’ll turn to me and say, ‘Arey mummy, kuch toh kar lo yaar!’ (Mom, come on, do something)”.
While she competed in the 50kg category in Paris, Vinesh is likely to wrestle in the 53kg or 57kg weight class when she returns to competition in 2026. The year will be a busy one for India’s wrestlers, with the Asian Championships scheduled for April, the Asian Games in September and the World Championships in October.
Before she can compete internationally, Vinesh will have to navigate the domestic selection trials. It’s a long road ahead, but she seems unfazed. “The path to Paris wasn’t straightforward either,” Vinesh said, adding that her primary focus now is to get back to full fitness.
When asked about Vinesh’s return, Sanjay Singh, president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), said, “She is welcome to compete again.”
“I want to assure that there won’t be any discrimination against anyone. As long as the rules and selection criteria of the federation are followed, everyone is welcome,” the WFI chief told The Indian Express over phone from Naranpura, Ahmedabad, where the National Championships got underway Friday.
Incidentally, the venue of the Nationals — Veer Savarkar Sports Complex — has life-size portraits of the former WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a former MP facing trial in a Delhi court after some of the country’s top women wrestlers accused him of sexual harassment in 2023. Vinesh was at the forefront of those protests, along with Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik.
Brij Bhushan is expected to attend the three-day tournament. “We can’t ignore whatever he (Brij Bhushan) has done for Indian wrestling in the 12 years he headed the federation. We can learn from his experience. Like everyone else, he too is welcome,” said Sanjay Singh.
It was after over a year of protests against Brij Bhushan that Vinesh had returned to competitive wrestling and qualified for the Paris Olympics, where the two-time World Championship medallist recorded one of the biggest upsets of the Games across sports when she defeated Japan’s Yui Susaki on her way to the final. However, on the morning of her weigh-in ahead of the gold medal bout against USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt, she was disqualified after weighing 100 grams over the permissible limit.
On August 8, 2024 — a day after the incident — Vinesh announced her retirement from wrestling. Two months later in October, she contested the Haryana Assembly polls on a Congress ticket from Julana and became MLA.
Now back on the mat, Vinesh said she missed wrestling and its “daily grind”. “I was angry and frustrated. I did not know if my life was headed in the right direction, and there was nowhere I could let off steam,” she said.
“I was missing something… I realised that the wrestling mat was my safe space. I felt safe on it; I could take out my anger and frustration on the mat; the mind doesn’t wander much. A part of me always stayed on the mat.”
Vinesh also said she did not want to have “regrets later in life that when I was still young, I didn’t give the Olympics another shot”.
“People say it’s tough after having a baby, it is difficult to manage everything, blah blah blah. But if you have the will, it can be done. It is very tough to cut weight and all the other things. But it is also fun. At the end of the day, this has been my life,” she said.
“And I didn’t want to go out like that. I want to be an example for my son. I read somewhere that you sacrifice so much and achieve so much in life that you do not need to give anyone else’s example to your child. So, instead of telling him stories about someone else, I will tell him, ‘I did this!’”
File image of Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat competing at the Paris Oympics in 2024. (Photo: AP) 
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