“Frustrated at having committed a betrayal”: Vinesh Phogat’s world champion rival at Paris Olympics gets emotional

Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from the women’s 50kg wrestling final at the 2024 Paris Olympics was a huge pain for Indian sports fans. But before that, Vinesh’s struggles left India in euphoria. She caused the biggest surprise at the Paris Games by overcoming the previously invincible Yui Susaki with a perfectly planned strategy before overcoming Ukrainian Oksana Livach and reaching the women’s 50kg semi-final.

Tokyo Games gold medalist and four-time world champion (2017, 2018, 2022, 2023) Susaki had not lost any of her 82 fights in her international career, but the Japanese top seed barely had any idea what she was about to do. reaching her in the opening, she lost 2-3 to Vinesh Phogat.

Later, when Vinesh entered the final, Yui Susaki got a chance in the repechage and won bronze. But Susaki has now said she committed “a betrayal” by not winning the gold.

“I was honored to win the bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics! First of all, thank you so much for all your support. It really helped me! I wanted to see my family, teammates and fans who fought with me over the last three years to win the gold medal, but I didn’t get it and I’m sorry and frustrated that I committed a betrayal,” Susaki wrote in a note shared by United World Wrestling.

“Comeback operation for Yui SUSAKI begins”.#roadtoparis2024 | #wrestleparis | #wrestlingparis | #WaytoParis | #free wrestling | #paris2024 pic.twitter.com/mHEgUsfQON

– United World Wrestling (@wrestling) August 12, 2024

“Despite the loss, encouraging words from all over the world and from worlds that still believe in me and will continue to support me. I couldn’t respond, but I read all the messages, one by one, and I can’t measure how much it touched my heart, how much it saved my heart and how much it made me want to move on. Thank you very much as long as there are people who still support me and believe in me, I stand strongly! willing to keep fighting hard again to achieve my goal of becoming an Olympic champion.”

With PTI inputs