Boria Majumdar in Paris
It was 2:30am in Paris, and I had fallen asleep. It had been one of the hardest days of my three-decade-long sports media career, and I just wanted it to end. Normally, I sleep by around midnight, and this was no different. I don’t know why, but around 2:30am, the phone pinged. Seeing that the message was from my sister in the US, I decided to check it. And my mind went numb. ‘Vinesh has retired’ was all she had written.
I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I went back to her tweet, and was literally numb for an hour. Couldn’t put my fingers on the keyboard. Words are my friends, but they just wouldn’t come to me. How can she, and how could God be so cruel to her? Seeing her wrestle against the Cuban fighter was easily one of the best moments I have witnessed, a bout I’d compare in significance to Abhinav Bindra and Neeraj Chopra winning Olympic gold medals. It could have ushered in a revolution in India, and inspired a generation to play sport. Now, it had all changed and how. A 100g grams was all it took to destroy it all. It forced her to give up and left us in despair.
I met her after the semi-final. She was running off to check her weight. All she said was: Kal baat karte hain [We’ll talk tomorrow]. That kal [tomorrow] never came. It never will now. How, and why? Why did this happen to her, and how can she heal? How do we all heal?
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Paris has been the toughest Olympics to cover. Vinesh has just left us all in shock with this decision, and proved why sport is what it is. The most raw and emotive thing that there is, and not for the faint-hearted. A 29 year old on the cusp of winning an Olympic gold gets disqualified for being 100 grams overweight, and is then pushed to leave the sport she has loved for two decades. How do we process this? As I write this at 3:45am, I can’t. I am unable to get my head around it, or think of what to say to her.
All I will say is that those six minutes will stay with me forever. Vinesh coming on to the mat and taking the Cuban apart. Changing Indian sport forever. At least, trying to. Making a statement to the world that she could. India could. It gave us all a lift and make us feel like we were on top of the Eiffel Tower. No one can take those six minutes away from me. And I will always remember her career through the lens of those six minutes. Not the painful and cruel retirement message. And as a devotee of sport, I will forever have an issue with God. This was too much to bear. God did not do justice to her.
May she heal. May we all. May the six minutes and the win against Yui Susaki always define her. May she retire with the thought that she beat the best in the world, and was on the cusp of Olympic glory. Possibly a gold-medal winner. Yes, it is a story of what could have been. But I will always rank Abhinav, Neeraj, PV Sindhu and Vinesh side by side. So what if she hasn’t been given the medal on the podium. She won our hearts. Our winner. And always will be.
Stay strong, Vinesh. That’s why you are who you are. Unless you stay strong, we won’t be able to deal with this. Or process it. The politics of it all couldn’t break you. Neither can 100 grams. Susaki couldn’t. How can anything else? Vinesh Phogat will forever be a champion, and you don’t need that medal around your neck to be one.
I will always invite you to the Trailblazers conclave. For, as I said, you are one. Always will be. Love and best wishes and all the strength to you, Vinesh, to deal with what’s your biggest test so far in life. You are just 29. Stay strong, and somehow find your happiness. And that smile which you had given us all at the end of those six unforgettable minutes. Thank you, and regards.
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