It was a night like no other. And with the verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) now announced, it is perhaps time for everyone to know what actually transpired on the night of August 6, hours before Vinesh Phogat was to grapple in an Olympic final. What all did Vinesh try, and how did she and the Indian contingent in Paris go about things? What eventually led to her disqualification on the morning of August 7?
To better understand the sequence of events, we actually need to start with Tokyo 2020. Vinesh was considered one of the favourites for Tokyo, and was fighting in the 53 kilogram category. However, she suffered a shock defeat, and was eliminated in the first round itself with her opponent not making it to the final. The reason, which came out much later, was that she was disorientated with the same issue of weight cut. She lacked strength and focus when she went on to the mat. Something similar happened to Antim Panghal in Paris, with the young wrestler starving herself for 48 hours leading into the bout.
Without food and water, anyone can get disorientated, and that was what had happened with Vinesh in Tokyo. They had not given her a proper recovery meal after the weigh-in and were focussed on getting her ready for the later bouts, thinking she would sail through the initial rounds with ease.
It was a lesson learned. She and her team were well aware that, when going through the process of the weight cut in Paris, they couldn’t afford to lose strength or mental focus. She started the process of cutting weight well in advance of her bout on the first day and at the weigh-in was 49.9kg. It was all going to plan. She had a recovery meal thereafter and hydrated herself because she was fighting Yui Susaki, and needed every bit of energy.
In fact, if she had lost to Susaki, she wouldn’t have failed the weigh-in the next day. Had Susaki gone on to make the final, Vinesh would have had the repechage the next day and would have gotten most of day 1 to reduce weight after the first recovery meal. But having beaten Susaki, she needed to hydrate herself a little ahead of the second bout, which was merely an hour later.
Once she was in the semi-final, she needed to make sure she was ready for the Cuban, and that meant a little more hydration and food intake. All of this added up and when she weighed herself after the semi-final was won, she tipped the scales at 52.7kg, within the limits that her team had anticipated.
That’s when the process of trying to reduce weight began. Vinesh had checked her weight within 25 minutes of winning the semi-final. I have first-hand information because I was standing in the mixed zone when she came up to me, shook my hand and said she would do an interview the next day after the final. She then ran in to check her weight. Clearly, it was playing on her mind. After she found out that she was 2.7kg over the limit, she started the process of cutting weight again.
The first thing she did was spar with her coach for close to an hour wearing a sauna suit in the wrestling arena itself. In sum, she was back on the mat within 30 minutes of winning a high-pressure semi-final. This was her best bet because, back in the Athletes Village, the wrestling arena would be shut by 10pm. She wouldn’t be able to make it back to the village in time to use the facility, and hence decided to spar at the venue itself to start the process. After about an hour of wresting with her coach in that sauna suit, she went back to the village by about 10pm.
After a quick shower, she was back at it. This time, however, in the gym because the wrestling arena, as mentioned above, was shut. To her disappointment and to the frustration of the Indian contingent, they found out that the gym was extremely chilly from all the air conditioning when they went in. It wouldn’t be easy to sweat profusely, and the Indians first requested the staff to switch the ACs off. Thereafter, they opened the windows for air to come in.
Given that it was warm in Paris, Vinesh started to exercise intensely to reduce weight. She cycled, skipped, jogged and did everything possible in the gym for the next few hours between 11pm and 2am. Even at this point, her coaching team was confident of losing the weight and said as much to the members of the Indian contingent present. She, however, was getting tired from the workload and was exhausted by about 3am. Also, she wasn’t sweating as expected, and that was when the first alarm bells started to ring. She wasn’t hydrated enough to sweat, and there was hardly any water left in her body. Physically, she was drained and couldn’t push herself further, having already done so for 5-6 hours between 8pm and 2am.
With Vinesh unable to push, the coaches tried to get the sweat out by working on her. They tried massage, rubbing her hands and legs and everything else possible. The panic was growing, and what further added to the disappointment was that the sauna wasn’t open until 5am. Gagan Narang, the Chef de mission, tried to make a special case and get it opened, and was there all night to try and help.
Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, who has wrongly been targeted for Vinesh’s plight, was also there every second to help. Dr Pardiwala had operated on Vinesh post-Rio and shares a very close rapport with her. By about 3:30-4am in the morning, every technique had been tried, but she was still a bit over where she needed to be. The Indians had got a weighing machine similar to the one used at the weigh-in, and were checking weight every few minutes.
This was where things got dire. With Vinesh desperate to participate and with wrestling not specifying the limits to which an athlete can go to in trying to reduce weight, many do things which aren’t exactly ethical. It is a very difficult choice. On the one hand, you have the Olympic medal, and on the other bodily harm, which can destroy your health. Vinesh and the Indian contingent were prudent enough to realise that, and did not try anything foolish. By this time, Narang had managed to get the sauna open and it was her last chance to get down to the correct weight.
Around 6:30am, when she was about to leave for the weigh-in, she weighed about 200 grams more. In an act of desperation, the Indians decided to cut her hair with her consent. There was even talk of shaving all her hair off. She did not want that. They even cut off parts of her clothes to reduce a few more grams. Finally, there was talk of running in to the weigh-in room so that it resulted in the reduction of a few more grams.
At the back of their minds, the Indians knew they were up against it. With the haircut and one final push, they were all hoping for a miracle. Vinesh too was hoping for one, and went into the weigh-in room praying. Let’s also add here that it is only the athlete who is permitted to go in, and no one else. Not the coach or the support staff or even the chef de mission. When she came out, she was devastated. Her Olympic dreams lay shattered because she was 100 grams overweight.
That was when Narang and the others pleaded with the organisers for a little extra time. The plan was to get her to sip water and skip for another 30 minutes to shed the final 100 grams. But rules are rules, and the organisers refused to grant even an extra second. She could weigh in as many times as she liked between 7:15 and 7:30am, but not even a second after that.
With the athlete completely dehydrated and out of sorts, the Indian delegation decided to get her admitted into the polyclinic and put her on drips. Her physical and emotional well-being were of paramount importance, and this was the only option left. After a few initial tests and drips, her body parameters were all found to be normal and she was released from the polyclinic after a few hours.
On the eve of Independence Day, it is important that we acknowledge what all Vinesh did to get that elusive medal for India. From cutting her hair to cutting off parts of her clothes and sparring with her coach for an hour within moments of winning an Olympic semi-final, she left no stone unturned, only to find out that she was a few grams over and her dream shattered.
We could only hope and pray that CAS would deliver the verdict in her favour, after taking into account the circumstances and the medical commission report, which was expected to mention that she was in a premenstrual phase. That could well have added a few more grams of body weight because of the water present in the body. The rules of the sport, which can force athletes – and not just Vinesh – to extremes need changing.
Vinesh could have been the catalyst that freed the sport of rules that have little to do with the principles and values of the Olympic charter. Instead, she becomes an asterisk in the record books, the luckless one whose gold-medal dream fell apart because of the weight of a ripe banana.