Vinesh Phogat’s Coach Makes Shocking Revelation In Now Deleted Social Media Post, Says 'Thought She Might Die Before Weigh-In'

Paris OIympics 2024: Coach Woller Akos revealed that despite the best efforts from the support staff and Vinesh Phogat herself, they could not meet the qualification criterion before the deadline.

Vinesh Phogat was so close but remained so far from an Olympic medal in the Paris Olympics 2024. She defated world number 1 Yui Susaki in her opening bout of the competition and then went on to become the first woman wrestler from India to enter the finals of the Summer Games. However, with India having slept assured of a silver medal, in a heartbreaking incident, Vinesh was barred from featuring in the gold medal bout and had to leave the Olympic village medalless after being disqualified for being 100 grams overweight.

Later details surfaced of her attempts to shed weight that she had gained in between her bouts on Day 1. It was revealed that she had not slept the entire night as she had to get back to 50 kilograms before the weigh in to feature in the gold medal match and even cut her hair to make the cut but all of that meant nothing as her weight was recorded at 50 kilograms 100 grams.

 

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'She Collapsed, But Somehow We Got Her Up'

And now her coach has made shocking revealations of the night before weigh-in, saying that he though Vinesh might even die as she struggled to shed that weight.

"After the semi-final, 2.7 kg of excess weight was left; we exercised for one hour and twenty minutes, but 1.5 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," Woller Akos, her coach in Paris, wrote in a Facebook post which he later deleted.

Vinesh later filed an official complaint at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) demanding that she be given a joint-silver medal. However, the court simply dismissed her plea. Even though the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Phogat has the provision of making an appeal, it appears unlikely that the decision would be changed.