Haircut, no water or food for days: what Vinesh Phogat did to compete in the lowest weight category

Heartbreaking news emerged from the Paris Olympics when India’s Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the women’s 50kg freestyle wrestling final. More than a billion people were rooting for Vinesh as she accomplished an unprecedented feat of becoming the country’s first woman to qualify for a wrestling final at the Olympic Games. But just as prayers began across the country ahead of Vinesh’s gold medal fight, the entire sporting fraternity received a huge shock when Vinesh was disqualified for weighing about 100 grams over the 50 kg limit.

Vinesh usually competes in the 53kg category, but Vinesh decided to change his weight category for the Paris Olympics, deciding to compete in the 50kg category. To ensure she is within the weight limit, even though the 50kg category is not in line with her natural weight, Vinesh has taken some extreme measures.

According to a report, Vinesh not only cut his hair to fall into the 50 kg weight category, but also tried to draw some blood from his veins, hoping to meet the criteria. However, her efforts did not bring her the results she wanted.

Vinesh had to take extreme measures after his weight increased by 1 kg on Tuesday night, sources told NDTV. She managed to reduce her weight by 900 grams, but the last 100 grams could not be eliminated.

Vijay Dahiya, another Indian wrestler who knows the intricacies of the sport, spoke to NDTV on the subject and revealed that athletes are usually given a set amount of time to submit their weight.

For example, if a player is weighed at 8:05 pm and is found to be overweight, the authority gives time until the deadline (8:30 pm, for example) to reduce the weight. However, there is no possibility of improvement if the weight remains above the limit at 8:31 pm.

Dahiya revealed that athletes go through intense sessions to maintain their weight in such cases. The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist revealed that Vinesh went straight to training after finishing her fights on Tuesday, didn’t eat and started training on Wednesday morning.

Before arriving at the Paris Olympics, Vinesh herself revealed that she made rigorous efforts to compete in the 50kg category, including intense sauna sessions. Her coach even revealed that she wanted to cut her hair even before the Olympics to help reduce perhaps 50 grams. But he didn’t do that.

But at the Paris Olympics, however, it was reported that Vinesh herself had to cut her hair, hoping to fall into the desired category.