Paris Olympics know your athlete: For wrestler Vinesh Phogat, the personal is the political

On her road to Paris, Vinesh Phogat had an unlikely sparring partner―the Delhi Police. There she was, a two-time World Championship medallist protesting on the road, skin touching asphalt, as she took on the might of former Wrestling Federation of India president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh. “They did such badtameezi (ill-mannered acts) that they tore our clothes,” she told ESPN. “They knew we were wrestlers and attacked us in covert ways. They twisted our legs so that we would get injured. One officer twisted Sangeeta’s [her cousin and wrestler] knee and I had to intervene and say she needs to wrestle, stop doing that. They would scratch us with their nails in a manner that it wouldn’t be seen. They pulled our hair in the guise of pulling us.”

Phogat was taking a stand for a handful of female wrestlers who had accused Singh of sexual assault. The case is still in court and, as fate would have it, the trial against Singh begins on July 26, the day the Olympics begin in Paris.


This is Phogat’s third bite at the cherry―having lost out in 2016 and 2021―and a win here would make it the sweetest. For this time, it is about more than just proving that she deserves a chair at the champions’ table. It is personal, it is political, it is everything in between.

The past two years have been tough for the three-time Commonwealth gold medallist. Not only did she have to face death threats and barbs about using “politics to save a drowning career”, but also had to take care of her wonky knee, which required surgery.

When she did return to the mat, it was not in her natural weight category of 53kg; that spot went to the talented Antim Panghal, one of the bright spots in an otherwise bleak phase of Indian wrestling.

No, Phogat had dropped down to 50kg, in which she won a quota for the Paris Olympics. Her options to head to Paris were―take on Antim for the 53kg spot (if the WFI conducted trials, which it did not), go up to 57kg and face physically stronger wrestlers, or drop down to 50kg, a category she had last wrestled in consistently in 2018. She went with the mad option of losing about 10kg to make the 50kg category and breezed through the competition at the Asian qualifiers to book the ticket to Paris.

However, unlike Antim in the 53kg category, Phogat is not seeded in her own group, which means she will go into the tournament blind. She could not rack up the points needed for seeding as she was out of competition or was still adjusting to the weight class when she did compete in those ranking tournaments.
The system works in a way that the seeded athletes avoid each other till the later rounds. Phogat, though, could end up facing the No. 1 seed Yui Susaki, who is the reigning Olympic and world champion, in the first round and get knocked out.

And that is when the critics will show up once again with their “told-you-so”s. But, as a woman who has been fighting the police, politicians and the system, Phogat would take her chances on the mat. After all, the mat is home.