India’s fighter girl Vinesh Phogat had one of the best campaigns of her lifetime in the Paris Olympics. The Indian wrestler set her standards high with an unstoppable performance in the event, though fate didn’t have it for her as she unfortunately missed a medal.
Phogat missed the previous Commonwealth games, and hence Antim Panghal qualified from her weight category, as a result of which she had to drop her weight to the 50 kg category for the worldwide event.
But in the competition, Vinesh’s opening bout was against World Champion Yui Susaki, who held a 14-year-long undefeated record, losing on only 3 occasions to the same opposition. The Japanese wrestler went on to clinch the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
It didn’t seem likely that India’s brave girl would be able to go past World No. 1, as she trailed by 2 points with just 40 seconds remaining, as she clinched a dramatic victory over her with a 3-2 scoreline. She next went on to defeat Oksana Livach in the quarterfinals and then Cuban wrestler Guzman in the semis, thus becoming the first-ever Indian women’s wrestler to enter the Olympics final.
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With a medal fixed for Vinesh, tragedy struck when before her gold medal bout she overweighed by 100 gms and was disqualified from contention. Stunned by the decision, she made a move to CAS and also announced her retirement, though she has hinted otherwise recently after the CAS rejected her plea for a silver medal.
According to reports from Indian newspapers, Vinesh used to charge INR 25 lakhs for each endorsement and has charged INR 75 lakhs to INR 1 crore recently. Vinesh returned to India a champion despite her disappointment in Paris, as she has won the hearts of people, if not the medal.
