The most tragic incident on internet currently is what happened with Vinesh Phogat. I don’t know what to call it tragedy or just missing that luck factor or something else. As someone who practices MMA, I understand how demanding it is to stay strong in such a tough sport. The sheer dedication, discipline and preparation is involved even to get there in Olympics' is unimaginable. Even if you don't come home with a gold, you are already a winner.
When I started digging into story of Vinesh Phogat it got clear to me -"She is a Warrior a real Hero." It feels like the lady already had at least silver in her pocket.
Vinesh Phogat had already defeated the reigning world champion who had won 82 her bouts until she came face to face with Vinesh Phogat. The other fighter she was facing was American wrester whom Vinesh Phogat won twice in the past. So, it was much anticipated that Vinesh Phogat will at least get silver. However, what happened was nothing less than a drama. Olympic medal in ultimate price for any sportsman when it comes to sports.
Understanding the Rigorous Rules of UWW Wrestling
For wrestling category Olympic Games follow the principles of UWW AKA United World Wrestling which controls or governs global amateur wrestling. These rules are very stringent and unforgiving. In Olympic under wrestling there 6 gold medals for men and women both. The weight category for both genders is different. Since we are talking about Vinesh Phogat here lets, focus about women's weight category. There are 6 categories for women starts with 50 kg, 53 kg, 57 kg, 62 kg, 68 kg, and lastly 76 kg.
Vinesh Phogat was competing in 50 kg category however there is a twist. She originally wanted to fight in 53 weight categories as she did in Tokyo Olympics but there Antim Pongal was already nominated for that category and now Phogat was pushed to lose weight and compete in 50 kg category instead. However, she was not ideal weight so now her challenge was to cut down her weight.
The Impact of Weight Categories on wrestlers in Olympic
Wrestlers have to go through tremendous pressure to lose weight as many don't maintain the ideal weight often wrestlers maintain higher weight but just before 3 weeks of the actual fight they will cut down on weight. This is tough particularly in boxing and wrestling category as athletes often maintain higher body weight. They have to be under observation of doctors, nutritionists, doctors and also the coaches during this time to make sure everything is fine.
Ideally 200 to 300 grams per day is what players aims
for that's what human body can handle. Now if all your fights are in one day,
then its fine as your weight will be ideal or even gap of 1 day is fine.
However, if the gap is more, then wrestler often gain weight by 1 or 2 kg. You
see why that's problematic as the gap between 50 and 53 is just 3 kg. This particular problem is also highlighted by Jordan Burroughs an American wrestler. If athlete's have higher body weight even by 1 kg, then that means they have to
fight in higher weight category. So maybe the athlete is 51 kg, yet they will have to
fight with someone who is maintaining ideal weight that is 53 so fighting an
opponent who is already stronger than you.
How Extreme Weight Cuts Affect Olympic Wrestlers
Wrestlers' regime is not like someone's regime who just hitting the gym to get into some specific body shape or trying to maintain some body weight. The regime is very different. Wrestlers have to deny themselves a lot of things to the limit that its brutal. Rapid weight loss puts their bodies through cycles of Dehydration and hypothermia and often involves risk of heart attack and death too.
In Phogat's case she also had injury in one of her fights she was shown in pain and had to be lifted on stretcher, so she had recovery also involved. Still, she did attain the ideal weight without giving up and I must say that's sheer strength.
On the day
of fight, Vinesh was under tremendous pressure she was starving and dehydrated she
did not sleep whole night they even removed her blood but still she was 110-gram overweight, so they cut her hair too which reduced 10grams more but still she was 100rams overweight. Most likely because of the food
and liquids she had consumed. Competing without proper nourishment is nearly
impossible, and her situation was truly tragic.
How Kenya handle disqualification in Olympic
Is she the only one who was disqualified? No, we have another example of disqualification Faith Kipyegon from Kenya was disqualified because of jostling and obstruction. Faith is runner and participate in women’s 5,000 meters. Pulse Sports reported “The dreadful moment happed in the final 800m when Kipyegon did not take kindly to Gudaf Tsegay’s tactics to box her in and had a go at her, raising her arm in anger before she continued her race.” However, Kenya chooses to file a appeal and made sure that Faith gets silver at least.
Can India do something like this? We can or we cannot that’s second question. First question is, did we try anything? Nita Ambani is member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who is currently at Paris, I wonder what she is doing.
Recent news says Harish Salve is going to fight Vinesh's case. Let's see how it all unfolds.
How countries prepare for Olympic sports
Countries prepare their athletes differently for Olympic. Our neighbor China find out talented gifted kids in school itself and then polish them, train them, and invest in them so that they can become future athlete’s and represent the country on global platform like Olympics. That is very smart investment to have global influence. Sports is soft power if use correctly. Another example from Germany, they played semifinal in men’s hokey opposite India and a player Gonzalo Peillat became sixth Olympian in history to win a gold medal. With this achievement he is now the most famous drag flicker in world.
Who is this guy? He is not German first of all, he acquired German citizenship in 2022 after falling out with Argentinian coach Orozco after the 2018 World Cup in India. This is another example of smart investment.
Don’t buy a medal's buy athlete’s instead and take care of them.
Lessons from Vinesh Phogat’s Experience
I am not saying India should buy athletes like this we already have enough talent however if India is failing to win or complete its not only failure of the particular athlete only, but there must also be so many other factors at play. We need to consider that and fix that first.
Vinesh Phogat was not fighting only in ring; she was fighting multiple wars outside the ring too! The war of internet trolls, the war against system and the war on political fronts too. She was seen protesting against WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for sexual harassment.
What can be done for India better performance? Its change on multilevel level. If nothing else, we should definitely avoid dragging such athletes into politics.
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