The Vinesh Phogat story: From 'Protests and Police' in Delhi to Perseverance in Paris, an unfinished heroic journey

Let’s imagine a movie, ‘The Frame opens in January 2023 at Jantar Mantar, one of the major protesting sites in India’s capital city of Delhi. Multi-time Olympians and Olympic medal winners were protesting for their rights and justice. 

Furthermore, the ‘Jantar Mantar Protest ended on January 21 after they met Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, who assured the wrestlers of the formation of an Oversight committee and investigation of the ‘entire case’.

The next shot displays three months later in April 2023 when the appointed committee submitted the ‘investigation report’ to the sports ministry. It also went on to put a rest on Vinesh's scheduled training in Sweden. This training was very crucial for her to get herself ready for the Asian Games and World Championships.

In the same line of events in April 2023, the wrestlers were back to the spot where they left in January 2024, to continue their protest.

Immersion of medals in Ganga

Just a few weeks after the ‘restart of protests’, there came a day in May 2023, which happened to leave the entire nation in utter shock. It was the time when everyone was planning the inauguration of the country’s new parliament. On the contrary, Vinesh Phogat, alongside her fellow wrestlers Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik initiated a ‘march of agitation’ towards the new parliament building. The trio was detained by Delhi Police which made the wrestlers head towards river Ganga to immerse their medals.

The visuals were disturbing for Indian sports fans as they saw a national hero and multi-time champion female wrestler getting dragged on the roads of the country’s capital. The three-time Commonwealth Gold medalist who raised the country’s flag at the highest level of sports was seen struggling on the roads instead of her wrestling arena, in her country that was taking pride in the achievements she earned a few months or years before the protests.

In a further turnaround of the events, the authorities convinced the wrestlers to take down their protests with an assurance of a ‘police investigation’ and the re-elections by June 30, 2023. The wrestlers left the roads saying, “We will continue until we get justice, but our fight will now be in court, not on the road.”

Olympic qualification after a string of setbacks

In August 2023, Vinesh suffered a knee injury which pushed her ‘away from participation’ in the Asian Games 2023, in Hangzhou. In the meantime, United World Wrestling (UWW) suspended India’s Wrestling Federation due to their internal issues.

The succession of events entered in December 2023, when a new WFI president was elected which didn’t go down well with the ‘protesting wrestlers. Vinesh, alongside her wrestling mates, came again to protest the ‘election result’. This time, the protest went to the extent that Vinesh and Bajrang returned their Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards.

Amidst all the setbacks in her struggles on the roads, there came a bit of relieving and positive day for Vinesh Phogat when she clinched the gold in the women’s 55kg category while competing in the nationals. Later, in an unexpected and ‘not-so-regular’ development. Vinesh fought in two weight categories, 50 and 53kg, respectively; she did this entire 'work' in a single day.

In March 2023, she secured a win in the 50kg category in the Asian Wrestling Championships and Asian Olympic Games Qualifiers. The 29-year-old successfully sealed a spot in the Paris Olympics 2024 after making it to the summit clash of the Asian Olympic Qualifiers.

Perseverance paid in Paris

Cut to the final shots of Phogat's ‘heroic story without a fairy-tale end’ in August 2024 [Paris Olympics 2024], the frame opens in Paris' Champ-de-Mars Arena; a world champion wrestler with a winning streak of 94 matches, Yui Susaki, alongside the entire arena was left stunned when Vinesh outplayed the reigning champion to seal a spot in the quarter-final.

The Indian hopes went a level above when the Indian star made it to the quarter-final and defeated Ukraine’s Oksana Livach to advance to the semi-final. It was the first-ever semi-final appearance in the Olympics for the Asian Games 2018 Champion.

The great news was yet to land for the Indian sports fans as Vinesh completely outplayed Cuba’s Guzman Lopez with a sensational 5-0 performance to secure a spot in the final of the Women’s 50kg weight category.

History was created, and the 1.4 billion Indian eyes gloomed with the news of the first-ever Olympic silver/gold in women’s Wrestling. The 29-year-old girl had become an ‘inspiration for the nation’ with an unprecedented journey both on and off the field. She became the first-ever Indian wrestler to make it to the Olympic Final in women’s wrestling.

The moment when 1.4 billion dreams shattered

After the assurance of a ‘highly-anticipated’ wrestling medal following the semi-final win, Indian fans slept happily before waking up to a heart-wrenching twist to this entire tale. The 1.4 billion Indian hopes were shattered, leaving everyone shocked and gutted when they woke up to a news headline, “Vinesh Phogat disqualified from Final after being overweight by 100 kg”.

In an unfortunate rest to this story ‘without an end to cherish’, Vinesh further announced her retirement from wrestling; she made this announcement from her official X handle (formerly Twitter).

“Maa, Kushti mere se jeet gayi, main haar gayi, maaf karna, aapka sapna, meri himmat sab toot chuke, isse zyada taqat nahi rahi ab (mother Kushti won, I lost, my courage and your dream are all broken, I don’t have any strength left),” wrote the gutted wrestler with a broken heart in her X-post.

माँ कुश्ती मेरे से जीत गई मैं हार गई माफ़ करना आपका सपना मेरी हिम्मत सब टूट चुके इससे ज़्यादा ताक़त नहीं रही अब।



अलविदा कुश्ती 2001-2024 🙏



आप सबकी हमेशा ऋणी रहूँगी माफी 🙏🙏

— Vinesh Phogat (@Phogat_Vinesh) August 7, 2024

All of us who witnessed this iconic and historic 'Vinesh Phogat struggle', be it covering as journalists or watching as fans, will never forget it in our lives. We'll have this unfinished heroic and historic tale to tell our kids how the tough times in life are fought with sheer dedication, grit and perseverance.

It will tell the generations about how to win billions of hearts despite a fate-inflicted bad day. Sooner or later, Phogat's struggle and battle from Delhi to Paris will be taught in the textbooks to answer the question, "How one can personify mental toughness amidst the continuous row of setbacks".