Observed as one of the finest wrestlers to emerge from India, Vinesh Phogat also has a strong wrestling legacy behind her. A three-time Olympian, Vinesh Phogat has three Commonwealth Tournament gold medals, two World Championship bronze medals, and a gold medal each at the Asian Games and Asian Championships. She also reached the final at the Paris 2024 Olympics but was debarred after failing a weigh-in on the morning of her gold medal match.
Early Life of Vinesh Phogat
Born on August 25, 1994, Vinesh Phogat has lagged in the footsteps of her cousins Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari and comes from one of India’s most prominent wrestling families. She was making known to the amusement at a very early age by her uncle Mahavir Singh
Though Geeta was slowly establishing herself on the national stage when Vinesh Phogat started wrestling, she also had to overcome social barriers and setbacks.
Vinesh had to oppose with opposition from the inhabitants who well-thought-out grappling to be a man’s sport and sworn for women to be restricted to their houses. At the age of just nine, Vinesh Phogat also had to survive with the untimely death of her father.
As the early wrestler hunted succor in the sport, Vinesh Phogat’s uncle Mahavir assisted as a beacon of hope amongst the anguish.
Success of Vinesh
Succeeding a stellar youth profession, Vinesh earned gold in the 48kg weight class at the 2014 Nationality Games in Glasgow, her first major international competition. Vinesh would go on to win more medals as she prepared for her first Olympic experience. Vinesh was full of sanguinity heading into the Games after engaging her Olympic qualification event in Istanbul, which secured her quota spot for Rio 2016.
However, Vinesh’s hopes of capturing a medal for her nation at the age of 21 were ruined after she advanced to the final rounds. Dealing with People’s Nation of the Chinese Sun Yanan in the final eight, Vinesh evacuated her right knee very early in the match. The Indian was stretchered off the mat in tears, her distress and agony all too visible, her medal candidates shattered. But this was not the first time Vinesh would have to display her durability and turn the annoyed into an enticing force.
Gold honors at both the 2018 The Commonwealth’s designs Games at Gold Coast to Coast and the Jakarta Asian Simulations were an indication of her belief to get back on top before the Indian wrestler thought to come up to the 53kg weight group for the 2019 season.
Bronze Victory
Vinesh Phogat was unmoved by the change wrapping bronze at the Asian Wrestling Championships before clinching the maiden World Championships medal, a bronze, at Nur-Sultan. Her accomplishments there protected her place in Tokyo in 2020. Moving into the Tokyo Olympics, Vinesh Phogat had never been in unique form. She was untouched throughout the year and also won her maiden gold at the Asian Championships.
Seeded first in the women’s 53kg mass category at Tokyo 2020, Vinesh Phogat began with a win over Swedish Sofia Mattsson but lost her next bout to Vanesa Kaladzinskaya and was slammed out.
Vinesh later displayed that she was not in the best physical and mental health influence through Tokyo 2020 and underwent an elbow operation soon after.
Vinesh Phogat came back to the mat in 2022 and immediate success subsequently followed with a bronze medal at the World Championships held in 2022 in the city of Belgrade and a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
BBC Indian Athlete Award
She also gained the BBC Indian athlete of the Year award for the year. Phogat was also titled in the Indian crew for the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou but was missing the opposition due to trauma.
Vinesh was disqualified at the necessary weigh-in because she was determined to be slightly overweight, even though she had taken some extreme steps to reduce her weight. A few days after her devastating loss in the Paris 2024 Olympic wrestling tournament, a distraught Vinesh declared her retirement from the sport.
