Vinesh Phogat Disqualified From Olympic Final For Being Overweight By Few Grams
Cuba's Guzman Lopez, who was beaten by Phogat in the semi-final, has now been promoted to the final, the United World Wrestling says.
Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has been disqualified from the final of the women's freestyle 50 kg event of Paris 2024 Olympics on Wednesday after being found slightly overweight. The final was scheduled to be held later in the night against the USA's Sarah Ann Hildebrandt, who won bronze in Tokyo 2020.
"It is with regret that the Indian contingent shares news of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the Women’s Wrestling 50kg class," Team India, the official account of the Indian Olympic Association, posted on X. "Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning."
"No further comments will be made by the contingent at this time. The Indian team requests you respect Vinesh’s privacy. It would like to focus on the competitions on hand," it said.
In a statement, the United World Wrestling said it was forced to promote Cuba's Yusneylis Guzman Lopez to the final of the 50 kg event, as Phogat failed the weigh-in on day 2.
On Tuesday, Phogat had defeated Lopez in the semi-final and became the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the final in Olympics.
Article 11 of the International Wrestling Rules states that if an athlete does not attend or fail the weigh-in, she/he will be eliminated from the competition and ranked last, without rank, the UWW said. "If one (or more) athletes qualified for the repechages and/or finals don't attend or fail the weigh-in, the athlete(s) (who successfully passed the second weigh-in) will move to the next round in his (their) part of the bracket."
Under these rules, Guzman will wrestle for gold, while the 50 kg will have one less round of repechage and Phogat's results will be disqualified. The 50 kg bronze medal bout will be between Oksana Livach of Ukraine and Yui Susaki of Japan, it said.
Phogat had defeated Livach 7-5 in the quarter final. She had also stunned reigning Olympic champion Yui Susaki in the Round of 16 in a dramatic match.
Phogat usually competes in the 53kg category but brought her weight down to 50kg for the Paris 2024 games. On day 2 of her weigh-in, however, she was found weighing over the desired limit, according to NDTV.
She reportedly tried to do all she could to come under the desired weight, including skipping meals, or running. The wrestler didn't sleep the entire night, hoping to fall under the weight category, it said.
