FILE–India’s Vinesh Phogat celebrates after defeating Cuba’s Yusneylys Guzman throughout their girls’s freestyle 50kg wrestling semifinal match, at Champ-de-Mars Enviornment, throughout the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Picture/Eugene Hoshiko)
India’s heartbroken Vinesh Phogat on Thursday introduced her retirement from wrestling, a day after being disqualified from the ladies’s 50kg competitors on the Paris Olympics for being chubby for the ultimate.
World bronze medalist Phogat, 29, was within the public eye for months final 12 months as a part of a long-running protest in opposition to the then-chief of Indian wrestling when he was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal.
Phogat, who has received three Commonwealth Video games gold medals, had been because of face Sarah Hildebrandt of the US for the gold medal on Wednesday in Paris however was discovered to be 100 grams over the 50kg restrict.
READ: Paris Olympics 2024
“Mom wrestling received in opposition to me, I misplaced. Your goals and my braveness are shattered,” Phogat wrote on social media platform X.
“I don’t have any extra power now. Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. I’ll endlessly be indebted to you all. Sorry.”
Hildebrandt took gold in Wednesday last in opposition to Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, who was reprieved after shedding her semi-final to Phogat on Tuesday.
Indian media reported Phogat has appealed to the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in opposition to her disqualification and demanded a joint silver to be awarded.
CAS is anticipated to announce its verdict on the case later Thursday in Paris.
‘A winner for us’
FILE–Indian wrestlers Bajrang Punia (L) and Vinesh Phogat (C) try and march to India’s new parliament, simply because it was being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, throughout a protest in opposition to Brij Bhushan Singh, the wrestling federation chief, over allegations of sexual harassment and intimidation, in New Delhi on Might 28, 2023. (Picture by Arun THAKUR / AFP)
Movies of Phogat with chopped hair and sunken eyes, figuring out to chop her weight down in a final bid to compete within the last went viral on Wednesday.
Phogat helped lead a weeks-long sit-in protest in New Delhi final 12 months in opposition to then-Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, on the time a lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling celebration.
Singh is being tried on accusations of groping feminine athletes and demanding sexual favors from them — expenses he denied.
Wrestling is vastly well-liked in rural northern India and pictures of Phogat and different athletes being detained as they tried to march to parliament throughout the protest went viral on social media.
READ: Indian wrestler Phogat suspended for Olympics misconduct
“You’ll all the time stay a winner for us,” Bajrang Punia, a fellow chief of final 12 months’s protests, and a Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist, mentioned on social media.
“Aside from being India’s daughter, you’re the satisfaction of India.”
One other fellow protest wrestler and Olympic bronze-medallist, Sakshee Malikkh, mentioned “each daughter has misplaced for whom you fought and received”.
Phogat, who handed the weigh-in on day one, shocked four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki of Japan within the opener with a late takedown to assert a 3-2 choice en path to the ultimate.
However Phogat was chubby on the morning of the ultimate, regardless of the wrestler and her group working in a single day to chop the kilos by means of exercising and sauna.
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Modi had backed Phogat in a social media publish, saying: “I want phrases might specific the sense of despair that I’m experiencing”.
Comply with Inquirer Sports activities’ particular protection of the Paris Olympics 2024.
