Vinesh Phogat’s Olympic medal hopes were crushed when her appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) was dismissed. The Indian wrestler, who felt robbed of a medal in Paris, will soon return home.
The controversy surrounding her disqualification from the 50kg freestyle final continues to make headlines. According to a report in The Indian Express, Vinesh’s coach, Woller Akos, revealed the extreme measures she took to try and make weight before the competition. Akos shared a Facebook post, which he later deleted, detailing the events of the night before the weigh-in.
Akos wrote that Vinesh had 2.7 kg of excess weight to lose after her semi-final match. Despite exercising for an hour and 20 minutes, she still had 1.5 kg to go. The coach described how Vinesh then spent 50 minutes in a sauna, but didn’t sweat at all. With no other option, she worked on cardio machines and wrestling moves from midnight to 5:30 am, taking short breaks in between.
Akos recalled that Vinesh “collapsed” at one point, but they managed to get her back up and into the sauna for another hour. The coach admitted that he feared for Vinesh’s life, thinking she might die from exhaustion.
In a conversation with Vinesh after she was discharged from the hospital in Paris, Akos shared her inspiring words. Vinesh told her coach, “Don’t be sad because I achieved my goal. I proved that I am one of the best in the world. We have proved that the gameplans work. Medals, podiums are just objects. Performance cannot be taken away.”
