Many regard wrestling as the oldest sport in the world. This form of hand-to-hand combat involves grappling with an opponent, aiming to press their back against the mat. Wrestlers earn points by gaining advantageous positions that edge them closer to achieving a pin. However, the present instance has led to a wrestler’s defeat off-mat. In a historic and unfortunate turn of events, Vinesh Phogat became the first athlete to be disqualified from an Olympic final for not making weight. On Tuesday, August 6, 20244, Vinesh made history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to reach the Olympic final after defeating Cuba’s Yusnelyis Guzman 5-0, securing a medal for India. This disqualification adds a bittersweet note to her remarkable achievement, highlighting the immense pressures and challenges faced by elite athletes when the weighing scale doesn’t tilt in their favor.
On Wednesday, August 7, wrestler Vinesh Phogat was hospitalized in Paris shortly after being disqualified from the Women’s 50Kf final at the Paris Olympics 2024. She is currently in stable condition and resting in the polyclinic of the Olympic Village. According to Indian Today, despite the relentless efforts of Vinesh and her crew, which included drastic measures like cutting her hair and attempting to draw blood, they could not achieve the necessary results.
But, this is not the first time she had to wrestle with weight before the opponent on the mat. She also decided around the year 2021 to move up to the 53 Kg division in the Tokyo Olympics after realizing that cutting down to 50kg was significantly affecting her performance. In her own words, it was the biggest relief to finally get back to a normal diet. Moreover, another wrestler called Emanuela Liuzzi’s journey took an unexpected turn when she was forced to forfeit her preliminary bout after being found overweight,
Procedure to Wrestle
The fate of a wrestler is often determined by the stringent rules set forth in Article 11 of Chapter 3 of the Competition Procedure, International Wrestling Rules under United World Wrestling (UWW), the sport’s global governing body. The weigh-in process for Olympic wrestling is a meticulous procedure designed to ensure fair competition and consistency with the Olympic spirit. Wrestlers must weigh in on the morning of their match with each weight class’ competition spanning two days. Competitors must meet the weight requirement on both days.
During the initial weigh-in, athletes have a 30-minute window to make weight, stepping on the scale multiple times if needed. Clad only in their singlets, they also undergo a medical examination to ensure they are free from contagious diseases and have properly trimmed fingernails. On the second day, the weigh-in period is reduced to 15 minutes. Throughout this period, wrestlers have the right to step on the scale as many times as they wish.
If an athlete fails to attend or pass the weigh-in, they are eliminated from the competition and ranked last without a rank. In instances where an athlete qualified for the repechages or final fails the weigh-in, the opponent who successfully passed the second weigh-in advances to the next round. Vinesh failed the second-day weigh-in and as per the rule, the wrestler who faced defeat against her in the semi-final will proceed to the finals. Certainly, this meticulous process committed towards fairness can dramatically alter the trajectory of an athlete’s career, making every weight-in a moment of high stakes and intense scrutiny.
Spark of controversy: a possibility?
Amid this consciously wrecking moment throughout the nation, Indian boxing stalwart Vijender has raised serious concerns related to Phogat’s disqualification from the Olympic final, suggesting it might be a case of sabotage. His major contention remains that Elite athletes like Vinesh are well-versed in the techniques of cutting weight before major competitions, making the incident particularly shocking. Vijender, India’s first and only male boxer to have won an Olympic medal, expressed his disbelief that Vinesh was 100 grams over the weight limit before such a crucial match. He wondered:
“I think it might be sabotage. 100 grams, you have got to be kidding me. We athletes can shed 5 to 6 Kg overnight. It is difficult, but we know how to control our hunger, thirst, and exert it to the extreme,” the middle-wright (75 kg boxer told PTI.
“And when I say sabotage, I mean people who are not happy to see India rise as a sporting nation. This girl has been through so much, your heart breaks for her. What more could she have done? Which other tests,” he questioned.
Athletes in contact sports, where matches are held according to the weight categories, must endure a painful process of staying within their divisions. Vijender shared, “There have been times when I have sat out saliva continuously so that nothing goes inside. One cannot imagine this extreme exercise.” It must be remembered that this back-stage hiatus is not uncommon, but rather more prevalent among the athletes. The physical and mental toll on athletes is extraordinary.
In 2018, six-time world champion woman boxer M.C. Kom revealed in an interview with PTI how she lost kg in a matter of four hours. She recounted her experience in Poland, where she eventually won her third gold of the year.
“We landed in Poland around 3:30 in the morning, and the general weigh-in was at around 7:30 am. I was a couple of kilograms above 48 kg, the category I compete in, at that point,” she said.
Based on her revelation to PIT, she had roughly four hours to weigh or risk being disqualified for being overweight. She skipped for an hour straight and managed to be ready just in time. It was plain fortune that the flight they traveled in was nearly empty, allowing her to sleep with her legs stretched out, which prevented stiffness upon landing.
As per the report in The Indian Express, Vinesh met the weight criteria for her bouts on Tuesday, but the rules require athletes to remain within their weight category on both days of the event. This deviation of weight result in comparison with Mary Kom’s experience, where she successfully shed kilograms just in time, seems quite unsettling in the matter of mere grams that the wrestler could not put down. While this author believes that athletes are highly conditioned for such adaptation by experts in the field since the National level tournament, the direction of this controversy is left for the Olympic spectators to decide.
Weight Division: A Never-ending Wrestle with Health?
It is quite evident so far that cutting weight is a widespread practice in Olympic wrestling and many other sports with weight categories. Athletes aim to fit into a lower weight class by losing up to 10% of their body mass in the weeks leading up to an event, with the final 24 hours before the weigh-in being particularly grueling as they strive to shed every possible gram.
In the wrestling community, competing in the lowest possible weight class is believed to provide you with a competitive edge. However, the digit on the weighing scale lowers with multiple techniques that involve one to come to the lowest terms with their health. To achieve significant weight loss, often through methods like excessive sweating and severe fluid and caloric restriction. Wrestlers typically induce swain through intense exercise in hot environments while wearing heavy clothing or impermeable suits. Though less common, some also resort to diuretics, laxatives, or vomiting. Nearly every wrestler has worn the same design of weight-cut. For instance, Deepak Punia had to lose 5 kg the day before his bout at the Rome Ranking Series in 2020, leading to severe muscle cramps and a performance that he described as “zero.”
Wrestler Ravi Dahiya explains, “You cannot even sleep and you cannot even talk to anyone. There is food and water in front of you, and you cannot touch it. It is a different feeling. Only wrestler can tell you how they get through that day.”
The danger of such practices could be tragically traced back to the West in the fall of 1997. Three collegiate wrestlers in the USA died within five weeks of practicing with layered suits in a heated environment gradually resulting in hypothermia from rapid weight loss and severe dehydration. As the temperature dropped to the point of hypothermia, the perspiration resulted in heart attacks and kidney failure. Apart from the potential injuries waiting to greet athletes on one failed technique during the competition, as many athletes, including Olympians, have experienced. Dr. Mukesh Kumar, a physiotherapist who has medically supervised many Olympic wrestlers in Chhatrasal Stadium, Delhi, explains that our joints, such as the knee and ankle have a sense of position known as proprioception. He explained, “If I say close your eyes and raise your ankle towards your head by 20 degrees, you will be able to do it. You aren’t seeing it but you know it. But that proprioception depends on blood flow. So when you are dehydrated, that proprioception will not be accurate. That causes a delayed reaction. So, when your joint is being pulled in one direction, you have a delayed reaction in pulling back if you are dehydrated. By the time you react to the stimulus, your joint has already moved beyond what it is capable of and you pick up an injury.” Therefore, the pressure on the body could deter the performance of the athlete.
Calculating further Steps
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) presided by P.T Usha has officially appealed against Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification, spotlighting the extraordinary circumstances of her weight management ordeal and seeking a reconsideration of her exclusion from the Paris Olympics 2024 final. Moreover, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has submitted an appeal to United World Wrestling, the global governing body, in a fervent bid to have Vinesh’s weight slip reconsidered. As the wrestling community watches with bated breath, this appeal could mark a pivotal moment in Phogat’s storied career and India’s sporting legacy.