Hours after her disqualification from the 2024 Paris Olympics women’s 50kg gold medal bout, Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat announced her retirement from the sport.
The 29-year-old Phogat took to her social media account to reveal the same on Thursday.
“Wrestling won against me, I lost,” wrote Phogat on X, formerly Twitter. “Forgive me for, your dreams, my courge have been broken. I don’t have any more strength.
“Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024. I’ll forever be indebted to you. Forgive me,” she added.
Phogat, who was at the forefront of the protests in India against the Wrestling Federation of India and its former chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, was disqualified from her gold medal bout at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday for failing her weigh-in.
As per reports, the grappler was 100 grams overweight than her 50kg weight limit during the weigh-in ahead of the gold medal match. The Indian contingent in Paris tried to appeal to the United World Wrestling authorities present to buy some extra time, but their requests were turned down.
Subsequently, Phogat’s semi-final opponent Yusneylys Guzman Lopez was promoted to the gold medal bout against the United States’ Sarah Hildebrandt. The other two wrestlers she beat – Yui Susaki and Oksana Livach – were also promoted directly to the bronze medal bout instead of the repechage rounds.
Phogat bows out from the sport with two World Championships bronze medal, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, and two Asian Games medals (a gold and bronze). She also has three Olympic appearances against her name, exiting in the quarter-finals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the 2020 Tokyo Games before making the final in Paris.
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