One of the greatest tales in the long-running saga of sport in Indian society in the modern era ended like a Greek tragedy, much to the chagrin of a billion sports fans. Vinesh Phogat, who richly deserved a medal for her stubborn persistence towards proving that the system is crooked in a society that fails to protect its women from harassment, is now appealing to the international arbitration court for an Olympic medal that was hers save for her being 100 grams overweight at the scales for her 50-kg classification wrestling final at the Paris Olympics.
The Vinesh Phogat saga had much in it to illustrate how the seeming normality of sport is a myth in an abnormal, male-dominated society. Her failure to manage her physicality according to the rules could be termed her only one as she did the unimaginable in beating the wrestler Yui Susaki who had never been beaten in a major competition in an 82-0 record. She downed two more champions on her way to the summit, all in the space of one great day in which she exhibited all her fighting qualities, her nous and tactical understanding of her sport.
Of course, the rules should not bend for anyone, though the principle may be anathema to a sentimental Indian society with its known disdain for rules and regulations where the exception seems to always slay the rule. The Olympic rules that allow persons of doubtful gender definitions compete as women in the boxing ring can be questioned, but that is not germane to the issue of classification by weight in wrestling.
The question that needs to be answered is how in a disqualification of this type an athlete loses even the record she had set on the day that she was qualified to fight and won the right to a medal, which is why Vinesh’s plea for a joint silver medal seems justified. Circumstances had forced the doughty wrestler with the blazing eyes to go for the tougher lower 50-kg category as another athlete, Antim Panghal, had qualified in that slot based on her world championship performance.
Vinesh had been busy fighting for nearly half a year in 2023 to expose the venality of a powerful politician-sports administrator against whom the normal rules regarding dealing with those accused of sexually harassing women did not seem to apply. And then she had to tend to mend the torn ligament that had stopped her in Tokyo, before taking the 50-kg route for a dab at Olympic glory in Paris.
The story of her valiant efforts to get under 50 kg on the scale on the morning of the final has been well and voluminously told. A whole night’s battle against body weight may, however, be classified as a minor challenge in her life for a gutsy sportswoman who saw her father killed when young and who fought every inch of her way up in life and career. For someone who was dragged around by police personnel at the Jantar Mantar protest site by her hair, the fight for justice in any field was something that came naturally.
Having to shed some of that hair and shorten her wrestling uniform were small sacrifices she made at the end in her despair to get to the mat for the final. Her name will now onwards be synonymous for a sportsperson who not only excelled in her chosen discipline but also stood up for justice for all sportswomen who have had to endure the creepy presence of perverts among administrators. Even a sparkling Olympic medal pales in comparison to the cause of safety of sportspersons that she fought for.
