Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has announced her retirement from the sport, a day after she was disqualified for failing the weigh-in at the Olympic Games.
The 29-year-old was set to face the US’s Sarah Hildebrandt in the finals for the 50kg freestyle category on Wednesday.
A win would have made her the first female athlete from India to win an Olympic gold medal in any event.
But on the morning of the contest, Phogat weighed in a few grams above the 50kg limit and was removed from the draw.
In a heartfelt post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, the wrestler said she no longer had the strength to carry on.
“Wrestling won and I lost. My dreams are shattered,” she wrote.
“Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. I will always be indebted to you all. I am sorry.”
A three-time Olympian, Phogat has won three Commonwealth Games golds, two World Championships bronze medals and one Asian Games gold medal.
In 2021, she was also crowned the Asian Champion.
Earlier this week, she became the first female Indian wrestler to reach an Olympic final – a feat which would have guaranteed her at least a silver medal if it wasn’t for her disqualification. Sakshi Malik, the only other female wrestler to win an Olympic medal for India, had clinched a bronze at Rio 2016.
Phogat’s performance also included one of the biggest upsets at the Games so far, after she beat reigning world champion Yui Susaki from Japan to progress to the quarter-finals.
“Vinesh Phogat is India’s biggest, bravest, boldest Olympian. We are lucky to have her,” wrote sports writer Sharda Ugra in ESPN after she defeated Susaki.
Phogat had reportedly starved herself for a week and spent hours in the sauna to cut weight for the contest. In the previous two Olympics, she had competed in the 53kg category. This was her first outing in the 50kg category – and the wrestler reportedly struggled to meet the weight requirement during her Olympic qualifiers as well.
Phogat has appealed against her disqualification from the Olympic finals to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), seeking to be awarded a joint silver medal.
This is not the first time Phogat has suffered a setback at the Olympic Games.
At Rio 2016, she had been a favourite for the medal until she dislocated her right knee midway through the quarter-final bout. Pictures of her stretched on the mat and writhing in pain had broken hearts in India.
