'Haraya gaya hain...': Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia's post adds twist as Vinesh Phogat calls it quits

Indian wrestler and Olympian Bajrang Punia said Vinesh Phogat was "made to face defeat" following her disqualification from the Paris Olympic Games.

Vinesh announced her retirement just a day after being disqualified for exceeding the 50kg weight limit by 100 grams, a decision that sparked controversy and despair.

"Vinesh aap haari nahi, haraya gaya hai (you were not beaten but made to face defeat), for us you will always be a winner, you are not only the daughter of India but also the pride of India," Punia wrote on X. 

Phogat was on the brink of making history as the first Indian woman to qualify for an Olympic wrestling final. However, the 29-year-old missed the weight cut by a mere 100 grams during the Wednesday morning weigh-in, resulting in her disqualification.

"Mother wrestling won against me, I lost. Your dream and my courage are all broken. I don’t have any more strength now. Goodbye Wrestling 2001-2024. I will forever be in your debt," Vinesh expressed on X.

Her retirement followed a dramatic appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) against her disqualification, seeking a joint silver medal.

"Let me tell you one thing, This girl was kicked and crushed in her own country. This girl was dragged on the streets in her country. This girl is going to conquer the world but she lost to the system in this country," Punia had tweeted earlier. 

Punia and Phogat were among several elite wrestlers who protested on the streets against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Singh, accusing him of sexually harassing women wrestlers.

The disqualification was due to an unnatural weight gain during the post-bouts weigh-in. Phogat, in a desperate bid to make the cut, resorted to severe dehydration by going hungry, avoiding fluids, and staying up all night to sweat out the excess weight. 

These extreme measures led to her collapse and subsequent treatment at a polyclinic within the Games village.

In her absence, Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman Lopez, whom Phogat had defeated in the semifinals, replaced her in the final against American Sarah Ann Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt secured the gold medal, leaving Phogat to rely on the CAS appeal for a potential joint silver with Lopez. 

However, United World Wrestling (UWW), the sport's international governing body, upheld the existing weigh-in rule, stating that any changes could not be retroactively applied.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had suggested that results from the day wrestlers met the weigh-in requirements should stand. UWW President Nenad Lalovic expressed sympathy for this suggestion but clarified that retrospective changes were not feasible.