What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Vinesh Phogat might just be the best example of that. The 29-year-old wrestler was killed every day through a career-threatening injury in Rio Olympics. Then she struggled with depression post Tokyo disaster and she became the face of women resistance in wrestlers’ protest. She was harassed, heckled, beaten, and dragged through the Delhi streets, that adored her for two World Championships bronze medals. But those days are over. She is once again a national hero. At Paris Olympics, she will now fight for the gold on Wednesday.
It was a day of revelation for Vinesh Phogat. In Paris Olympics, she did the unthinkable, stunning Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Yui Susaski 3-2 in perhaps her toughest battle on the mat. Susaki was on an 82-0 unbeaten streak. But those stats did not matter for her. The warrior she is, she put a red in Susaki’s ledger, ending her winning streak.
Then, she was up against Ukraine’s Oksana Livach. Even though she gave up points, she won that quarterfinal too 7-5. Then, it was a Cuban. It did not matter. Vinesh was the woman on a mission and she breezed past Yusneylys Guzmán 5-0 to script history.
She became the first Indian woman wrestler to book a place in Olympics final. Vinesh went from a national failure to a national hero in a span of 8 hours.
A Failed Wrestler?
Until August 5, 2024, wrestler Vinesh Phogat was largely looked at as the athlete who had immense potential, but failed to realise it at different points in her career, especially at the Olympics. Two World Championships bronze medals, in 2019 and 2022 in the 53 kg category never did justice to her CV.
That is big considering, she blew up her chances in two Olympics — in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. In the first one she suffered a career-threatening anterior cruciate ligament tear in her knee. And in the second one, her journey was cut short by Kaladzinskaya of Belarus in the quarters. Cut to 2024, Vinesh is in the semis and on the verge of sealing a medal.
She achieved unrealistic, unreal, unexpected feat by beating perhaps the best wrestler in the category. Vinesh, it seems, knew this as well, and broke down into tears as soon as she took down her much-fancied opponent 3-2. When no one gave a her chance, she not only threw a surprise, but created the biggest upset in wrestling history.
Teary-eyed 2016 to Jubilant Vinesh in 2024
It is only obvious that wrestling aficionados are comparing this Vinesh of today, from the Vinesh of 2016, who left the match distraught, in tears, and in much pain. The dream might have come to a halt back then, but it was never meant to be a full-stop, and that’s what the 29-year-old has proven.
Here, she has fought the demons of self-doubt and uncertainty too, and stands on cusp of a medal. For all that she went through in the last couple of years, coupled with her ordinary outings at the Olympics, her journey might just be coming a full circle now.
