Bhubaneswar: A dejected Vinesh Phogat on Thursday announced her retirement from wrestling, a day after being disqualified from the Paris Olympics hours before her gold-medal bout.
“Maa, kushti mere se jeet gayi, main haar gayi. Maaf karna, aapka sapna, meri himmat sab toot chuke. Isse zyada taqat nahi rahi ab” (Mom, Wrestling has beat me, I have lost. I lost…my courage is all broken, I don’t have any more strength now),” Vinesh wrote on her social media account.
“Alvida, kushti (Goodbye Wrestling 2001-2024),” she concluded.
The 29-year-old grappler was disqualified for being 100 grams overweight and stripped of her medal in 50-kg freestyle category hours before she was on the cusp of history after becoming the first Indian woman to qualify for an Olympic wrestling final.
Earlier, she had appealed against her disqualification in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a joint silver medal. The verdict is expected on Thursday morning.
Reacting to her retirement announcement, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said Vinesh is “tired of fighting”. “This girl is tired of this system… This girl is tired of fighting,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.
A little over a year ago, Vinesh along with Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik was the face of a lengthy protest against former Wrestling Federation of India head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexual harassment and intimidation by women wrestlers. She had endured police detention and nights on the streets.
Punia wrote: “Vinesh, you have not lost, you have been defeated, for us you will always be a winner, you are not only the daughter of India but also the pride of India.”
Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini announced that the state will felicitate her like a medalist. “Our government has decided that Vinesh Phogat will be welcomed and felicitated like a medallist. All the respect, reward and facilities that the Haryana government offers an Olympic silver medallist will be offered to Vinesh Phogat as well,” he posted on X.
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