Star wrestler's Vinesh Phogat's appeal for silver medal might have dismissed by the CAS after a long delay but the superstar wrestler has already made the nation proud. Phogat suffered a heartbreaking disqualification from the Paris Olympics after she was found 100 grams overweight right ahead of her gold-medal clash against USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt in the women’s 50kg event. Later, she appealed to CAS for the joint silver but fortune did not favour Vinesh.
However, just a couple of days after CAS' final verdict on Vinesh's silver medal appeal, her coach Woller Akos, has revealed the harrowing ordeal the wrestler endured before her Olympic final. The Hungarian coach expressed deep concern over Phogat's extreme weight cut, admitting that he feared for her life during the grueling five-and-a-half-hour process. The wrestler was ultimately disqualified from the gold medal match for being slightly overweight. Akos defended the team's actions, stating they exhausted all efforts to ensure Phogat could compete. In a since-deleted social media post, he praised Phogat's dedication to achieving her Olympic dream.
ALSO READ: Vinesh Phogat's first reaction after CAS shatters her dream of Paris Olympics Silver Medal
I only remember thinking that she might die: Vinesh Phogat coach Woller Akos
As per Indian Express, in a Facebook post in Hungarian, which he later took down, Vinesh's coach wrote:
“After the semi-final, 2.7 kg of excess weight was left; we exercised for one hour and twenty minutes, but 15 kg still remained. Later, after 50 minutes of sauna, not a drop of sweat appeared on her. There was no choice left, and from midnight to 5:30 in the morning, she worked on different cardio machines and wrestling moves, about three-quarters of an hour at one go, with two-three minutes of rest. Then she started again. She collapsed, but somehow we got her up, and she spent an hour in the sauna. I don't intentionally write dramatic details, but I only remember thinking that she might die”.
"We had an interesting conversation that night, returning from the hospital. Vinesh said, 'Coach don't be sad because you told me that if I find myself in any difficult situation and need extra energy, I should think that I beat the best woman wrestler Japan's Yui Susaki) in the world. I achieved my goal, I proved that l 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'," Akos recalled.
To emphasise Phogat's unwavering determination for Olympic glory, her coach recalled the wrestlers' high-profile protest the previous year. During this act of defiance, Phogat, along with fellow Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, had symbolically immersed their medals in the Ganga in Haridwar. Akos also expressed confidence that the world would remember Phogat's impressive performance on the first day of competition, even with the unfortunate disqualification.
“Vinesh had pleaded with Sakshi and Bajrang to not put their hard-earned Olympic medals in the river. She begged them to keep those because they were special. But they explained to her that the journey was important and their performance was not defined by medals. We will still be proud of the fact that our professional programme could lead to beating the best woman wrestler in the world and take an Indian woman wrestler to the Olympic final for the first time in history,” his post further read.
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