India wrestler loses an Olympic medal over her weight : NPR

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Vinesh Phogat’s dream of profitable India’s first gold medal on the Paris Olympics resulted in what for wrestlers is a nightmare state of affairs: She didn’t make weight for the ladies’s 50-kilogram class last. After initially profitable an opportunity for a gold or silver medal, her disqualification means she’s going to depart France with no medal of any kind.

Phogat was discovered to be 100 grams over the restrict — about 3.5 ounces, just like a deck of playing cards — in keeping with the Indian Olympic Affiliation. After having three bouts on Tuesday, her weight was discovered to have elevated a bit greater than regular, the affiliation’s chief medical officer, Dr. Dinshaw Pardiwala, mentioned on Wednesday.

Phogat had a profitable weigh-in on Tuesday morning, Pardiwala said, and her nutritionist calculated that she may have round 1 1/2 kilograms of water and meals. She additionally drank small quantities of water after her matches.

However when workers checked her weight, it was over the restrict. The athlete’s typical methods for chopping weight weren’t profitable, Pardiwala mentioned.

“We had tried all doable drastic measures all through the night time, together with chopping off her hair, shortening her garments,” Pardiwala mentioned. However to no avail.

It was a merciless approach to finish what had gave the impression to be a charmed run to the gold medal match, as Phogat delivered a string of victories over extremely ranked opponents. After two heartbreaking Olympics — a horrible knee harm ended her Rio 2016 marketing campaign, and a surprising upset ousted her in Tokyo — she was lastly on observe to win the medal many have seen as her future.

Her disqualification “may be very surprising,” mentioned Indian Olympic Affiliation President PT Usha, who met with Phogat within the Olympic Village on Wednesday.

“We’re offering Vinesh all medical and emotional help,” Usha mentioned, including that India’s wrestling federation has filed an attraction asking that the disqualification be reconsidered.

An Olympic medal would have been one thing of a salve to a 12 months of turmoil in India’s wrestling neighborhood. Final summer season, Phogat took on a outstanding function in high-profile protests towards sexual harassment, as she and different prime wrestlers known as for motion towards then-Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Singh, an influential politician who was additionally as soon as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.

As NPR reported final 12 months, Singh was “accused by the nation’s seven most high-profile wrestlers, together with a minor, of groping them, stalking them, demanding sexual favors and threatening them in the event that they refuse to entertain his advances.”

Singh has denied the allegations. Within the New Delhi protests towards him, Phogat and different elite athletes had been confronted by police who dragged them away and detained them.

After Wednesday’s abrupt elimination derailed Phogat’s likelihood for an Olympic medal, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said via X, “Vinesh, you’re a champion amongst champions! You’re India’s pleasure and an inspiration for each Indian.”

Acknowledging a “sense of despair” over the end result, Modi added, “On the similar time, I do know that you simply epitomise resilience. It has all the time been your nature to take challenges head on.”

On the Paris Video games, Phogat defeated a roster of champions in a single day to earn a spot towards Workforce USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt in Wednesday’s last. In her first match, she upset the reigning Olympic champion, Yui Susaki of Japan. She then beat former European champion Oksana Livach of Ukraine within the quarterfinals and Pan American Video games champion Yusneylis Guzman of Cuba within the semifinals.

Due to Phogat’s disqualification, Guzman was elevated to the ultimate to face Hildebrandt. The American received the gold.

Phogat comes from a household well-known for its feminine wrestlers: her cousins’ story impressed the Bollywood movie Dangal, from Walt Disney’s India subsidiary. She has additionally spoken out in favor of empowering women and giving them extra help to pursue sports activities.

She instructed The Hindu information outlet in 2018, “most significantly, women want to face up for what they wish to do. It’s not nearly sports activities — even in any other case, in training or in life, women must cease feeling pity for themselves or contemplating themselves weak. You must have the energy of perception in your self. Step one must be taken by a woman herself; every part else follows.”

When she’s injury-free, Phogat racked up wins on the mat from an early age. She took bronze on the world championships and prime titles on the Commonwealth Video games and the Asian championships. Her outcomes, typically in weight classes a bit heavier than 50kg, have lengthy fueled hopes for Olympic greatness that, due to round 100 grams, now stay unfulfilled.