Vinesh Phogat reached Olympic glory—then it all went wrong

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Vinesh Phogat seemed unstoppable. 

India’s wrestling star stunned the world by defeating four-time world and defending Olympic champion Yui Susaki in a dramatic opening-round upset. She then advanced to the championship match after winning her quarterfinal against Ukraine’s Oksana Livach and her semifinal against Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez. A victory in the final would have made her the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in any Olympic event.

Then everything went wrong. 

On Wednesday morning, Phogat’s dreams were shattered when she was disqualified for failing to make weight ahead of the gold medal match. Despite taking extreme measures, including cutting her hair and spending hours in the sauna, she weighed in just 100 grams over the limit.

The ordeal took a severe toll on Phogat, who had to be taken to a polyclinic at the Olympic Village due to dehydration from severe food and fluid restriction. In the aftermath, she appeared to announce her retirement, posting in Hindi: “My courage is broken, I don’t have any more strength now. Goodbye Wrestling, 2001-2024.”

It was a heartbreaking conclusion for the wrestler who had spearheaded the fight against sexual harassment at the highest levels of Indian wrestling, boldly challenging some of the most powerful figures in the country and enduring police brutality along the way.

Nevertheless, her wins — and dramatic disqualification — have put her recent crusade against sexual harassment back in the spotlight. 

Last year, Phogat emerged as the face of a campaign to remove Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh as head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), the body governing the sport in India, after a group of women wrestlers accused him of sexual assault and the sexual exploitation of a minor. 

Phogat staged a sit-in in May 2023 in New Delhi to protest the lack of action against Singh, who is also a parliamentarian from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“Women wrestlers have been sexually harassed at national camps by coaches and also the WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan,” Phogat said during a protest. “Some of the coaches appointed at national camps have been sexually harassing women wrestlers for years. The WFI president is also involved in sexual harassment.”

Phogat even revealed that she was “mentally harassed and tortured” by Singh after she missed out on an Olympic medal in Tokyo in 2021, which led her to almost contemplate suicide.

She also admitted that she lives in fear for her life, and that she has personally received death threats from officials close to the Singh after she first broached this subject with  Modi in 2021.

“They have become very powerful,” Phogat said to reporters in January. “I have spoken today and I don’t know if I will be alive tomorrow because of this. I know about 10-20 girls who have been exploited in the national camp over the past 10 years. Those girls are scared because of their family background. They can’t fight against them because they are not powerful. I can do it because I don’t mind if they stop me from wrestling. I have a house, I have food. I am here because I don’t want the future generations to go through this sadness and pain.

“We have only wrestling as our livelihood. They are taking away our livelihood. Our only option is to die, so might as well do good and die.”

Although the protest was eventually dispersed by law enforcement, with reports of Phogat being assaulted and forcibly detained, New Delhi police finally arrested Singh in June on charges of “sexual harassment, intimidation, and outraging the modesty of women.” Singh continues to deny the accusations.

However, his removal as the head of the WFI and his being held accountable for his alleged crimes stand as a testament to Phogat’s bravery.

After Phogat’s historic victory in the Olympic semi-final earlier this week, Bajrang Punia—an Olympic medalist and fellow participant in Phogat’s protest movement—praised her as the “lioness of India.”

“This girl was kicked and crushed in her own country,” Punia wrote on Twitter. “This girl was dragged on the streets in her country This girl is going to conquer the world but she lost to the system in this country.” 

The Indian Olympic Association has since launched an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but only after the intervention of PM Modi. According to local media, Modi phoned Indian Olympic Association president PT Usha to insist the organization lodge a protest.

Though CAS is unlikely to restore Phogat’s Olympic dreams, she’ll be remembered not just as one of India’s greatest wrestlers, but as a trailblazing activist who empowered her fellow athletes to speak out against sexual assault, paving the way for future generations of women in the sport.

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