What led to Vinesh Phogat’s Olympics 2024 disqualification? Understanding weigh-in rules for freestyle wrestling

Over the past few days, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has formidably been powering her way to a potential victory at the Paris Olympics 2024, one tackle at a time. Competing in the lowest weight class for women — 50 kilograms (or a 110 pounds), Vinesh was up against USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt with both of them set to compete for the coveted Gold medal today, August 7 at the Champ-de-Mars Arena. Vinesh’s disqualification spells a direct march for Sarah to the podium, cinching gold for the States. There additionally, will be no silver medal for the 50 kilogram class in women’s freestyle wrestling. The bronze medals for the tournament will be decided via repechage matches. Coming back to Vinesh, what went wrong? Vinesh Phogat disqualified from Olympics 2024: What went wrong? (Photos: X) Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification: ExplainedOn the morning of her match with USA’s Sarah, Vinesh weighed in a 100 grams over the stipulated 50 kilogram mark which the wrestler was required to meet. While to the layman this may appear like no big deal, for sports categories with weight classes, every gram counts. To understand Vinesh’s predicament better, one must also be made aware of how pensive the morning of weigh-ins are for wrestlers, or as a matter of fact, any athlete competing in a sport with weight classes. As per an NBC Olympics analysis, for Olympic wrestling in particular, be it freestyle or Greco-Roman, the tournament for each weight class takes place over 2 days. Irrespective of if one is competing in the finals or a repechage match, the wrestler is required to make their specified weight bracket over both days. Weigh-ins on day 1 last 30 minutes with the wrestler being allowed to step on the scale as many times as needed to make the weight bracket. Weigh-ins on day 2 last 15 minutes. In Vinesh’s case, media reports state that she was 2 kilograms overweight on Tuesday, August 6, which is the day she made the cut for the finals. As per media reports, she spent the night jogging, skipping and cycling to bridge the gap, an effort which tipped against her favour the last 100 grams. Is the disqualification unfair?As heartbreaking as it may be, for both Vinesh as well as the billions of Indians rooting for her, the 100 gram discrepancy in her weight does in fact call for disqualification. As mentioned above, the runup to weigh-ins are a tense few hours. However, cutting weight is part and parcel of competing at international events. This holds especially true for lower weight categories, in which athletes attempt to lose about 10 per cent of their body mass in the weeks leading up to their tournaments. After a successful weigh-in, the focus then shifts to recovering the mass, mostly through fluids. Indian amateur wrestler Seema Bisla, is a previous interview to ESPN confirmed how making it through weigh-ins is a whole ordeal in itself. She said, “Just because you make weight doesn’t mean you are going to win a medal. Uska alag tension hai (that’s a separate worry). Making weight is the price you pay merely to compete”. Has this happened before?Yes it has. Back in 2021 now retired wrestling veteran J’den Cox failed to make weight for the US Olympic Wrestling Trials. J’den was vying to compete in the 97 kilogram bracket. It is worth mentioning that he has been a two-time reigning world champion at the non-Olympic weight of 92 kilograms. He chose to go up in weight for the Tokyo Olympics 2021, a departure from his Rio Olympics stint of 2016 in which he won the States a bronze, competing in the 86 kilogram category. He announced his retirement from the sport earlier this year, while competing at the most recent round of US Olympic Wrestling Trials. ‘You are India’s pride’Vinesh’s trajectory at the Olympics has been incredibly trying, ending in heartbreak. While the disqualification may be the glaring highlight of her time in Paris, one simply cannot overlook the fact that she handed defending world and Olympic champion Yui Susaki from Japan, the first international loss of her career, amid other formidable matches against the likes of Cuba and Ukraine. Paris 2024 also saw her become the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the Olympic finals. In the hours following the news of Vinesh’s disqualification, Prime Miner Narendra Modi penned an X post in which he referred to the wrestler as “India’s pride” also expressing his own “despair” at the unfortunate situation at hand. Her uncle Mahavir Singh Phogat, broke down in tears addressing the situation as he said, ‘There won’t be any medals now. There’s no solution to this. We will try again in 2028’. As per the latest reports, Vinesh has been hospitalised due to severe dehydration.