Vinesh Phogat is a shining name in the world of wrestling. She participated in many competitions and won. She was doing all this quietly and was not in the limelight too much, so what happened that people suddenly want to know everything about Vinesh.
She is in top searches and people are searching like ‘who is Vinesh Phogat? Vinesh Phogat’s schedule and results, Vinesh Phogat Olympics,Vinesh Phogat match, Vinesh Phogat disqualified, Vinesh Phogat’s decision, Vinesh Phogat father, Vinesh Phogat Wrestling Paris Olympic,Vinesh Phogat age, why Vinesh Phogat disqualified? Result of Vinesh Phogat’s appeal, Vinesh Phogat Olympics 2024’ questions like this are erupting in people’s minds so let’s answer them and unwrap the life of Vinesh Phogat.
Who is Vinesh Phogat
Vinesh is a former Indian wrestler and now member of Indian national congress. She is contesting the election from Julana village (Jind), which is her in-laws village.
Vinesh Phogat was born on 25 August 1994 in Balali village, Charkhi Dadri district (Haryana). Vinesh Phogat father was Rajpal Phogat, he was murdered when Vinesh was young.
Her mother’s name is Premlata Phogat she raised her and supported her wrestling despite facing the taunts of society.
Vinesh also has a sister whose name is Priyanka Phogat, she is also a wrestler.
Vinesh comes from a family whose roots are deeply connected with wrestling. Her uncle is none other than Dronacharya awardee Mahavir singh Phogat, who himself was a wrestler and now a coach who not only trained her own daughters from an early age for wrestling but also Vinesh.
Her cousins are Geeta, Babita, Ritu and Sangeeta, all of them have competed in different weight categories and won them.
Vinesh completed her school education from KCM senior secondary school in Jhojhu Kalan, Haryana.
For her college she went to Maharshi Dayanand University in Rohtak (Haryana).
In 2018 on 13 December 2018 Vinesh got married to fellow wrestler Somveer Rathi both worked in Indian Railways that time and known each other since 2011.
Extra Information about Vinesh Phogat
Vinesh follows Hindu religion, her nationality is Indian.
Vinesh Phogat age is 30 years.
vinesh’s height is 5 feet 6 inches and her weight is 50 kg.
vinesh owns 3 cars first is a Volvo XC 60 second is Hyundai Creta and third is Toyota Innova. her husband owns a Mhindra Scorpio.
Vinesh has a Golden Retriver whose name is Simba.
Right now Vinesh has 1 million followers on her Instagram.
Early life struggles
Vinesh used to wake up at 3:30am to get training from her uncle Mahavir Singh Phogat, in an interview she told that her uncle is a very strict coach if they didn’t perform well they even got beatings from him.
But because he was so strict they were so disciplined and all the sisters were successful in representing India at the international level. After that heavy training she used to go to school.
This was a daily routine of phogat sisters; the real struggle was society’s taunts. Vinesh belongs from an orthodox village where girls didn’t participate in sports and families used to marry young girls so the other villagers didn’t like the fact that these girls were practicing wrestling with boys in shorts.
Her wrestling was possible just because of her family’s wrestling roots and her uncle’s time ahead thinking and because Vinesh’s cousins were already doing great in wrestling she also got the chance and she utilized it well.
Vinesh Phogat Match
Vinesh is a freestyle wrestler.
Her first coach was her uncle Mahavir Phogat as we mentioned above and her second was Woller Akos.
Let take a cursory glance on Vinesh Phogat match, She has participated in many competitions like Asian Wrestling Championship, commonwealth games and Olympics too. Let’s take a glimpse of her games and medals:
Vinesh has won 22 medals in total in which 10 are gold medals, 5 silver medals and 7 bronze medals are included.
She won gold medals in 2014 Commonwealth Games where her weight category was 48 kg at Glasgow (Scotland), 2017 Commonwealth Games where her weight category was 55 kg at Johannesburg (South Africa).
2018 Asian Games where her weight category was 50 kg at Jakarta (Indonesia), another gold medal in 2018 she won at Gold Coast (Australia), 2019 Yasar Dogu Tournament where her weight category was 53 kg at Istanbul (Turkey).
2020 in Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series where her weight category was 53 kg at Italy again in this same tournament with the same category she won gold medal in 2021, another gold in 2021 she won at Warsaw (Poland) in 53 kg weight category.
Then it was the Asian Championship in 2021 at Almaty (Kazakhstan) where she won gold in 53 kg, and the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham (Britain) in the same 53 kg category.
Now it comes silver medals she won them in 2013 Johannesburg in Youth Wrestling Championship in 51 kg, 2015 in Doha (Qatar) in 48 kg in 2017 in New Delhi (India) in 55 kg and 2018 in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) in 50 kg all these three she won in Asian Championship. In 2019 she won another silver in the Dan Kolov and Nikola Petrov Tournament at Ruse (Bulgaria) in the 53 kg category.
Then let’s talk about her bronze medals Phogat won, in 2013 New Delhi in 51 kg, in 2016 Bangkok (Thailand) in 53 kg, in 2019 Xi’an (China) in 53 kg and in 2020 New Delhi in 53 kg all above bronze medals she won in Asian Championship.
Another bronze she won in 2014 in Asian Games at Incheon (South Korea) and last 2 she won in World Championship in 2019 at Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) and in 2022 at Belgrade (Serbia) in both of them she participated in 53 kg.
Awards by central Govt.
Vinesh received the Arjuna Award in 2016 during her knee recovery and she was awarded India’s highest sporting honour the Khel Ratna, in 2020.
both of these awards were returned by her when she was protesting against Brij Bhusan.
Vinesh Phogat Olympics
Vinesh was not lucky enough to win Gold in any of Vinesh Phogat Olympic matches. She tried in total three times in Olympic but was not successful.
In 2016 Vinesh Phogat Olympics first try was in the 48 kg category in the Rio Olympics she started with an amazing performance but in the Quarter Final she had a knee injury and she got her exit in 16th round.
Again in 2020 Vinesh Phogat Olympics second try Tokyo Olympics due to COVID-19 Tokyo Olympics were postponed but Vinesh made it to fulfill her dream of winning an Olympic medal but destiny was not on her court again. This time she participated in the 53 kg weight category and got defeated in the Quarter Finals. This really broke her and she took a break from wrestling she stated that “As an athlete, the mental pressure is so much that we’re always on a thin line. When it crosses, we are done,”
Vinesh Phogat Wrestling Paris Olympics 2024
Recently She tried her luck again in the Paris Olympics. She decided to fight in the 50 kg weight category. The very first match was with the toughest Yui Susaki who had a record victory of 82-0 in international competitions that was too tough but an excellent match and Vinesh won in it.
After that she won match after match and had an entry in the finals. Vinesh has become first Indian women to enter in Olympic Finals but unfortunately in the morning of finals her weight was 50 kg and 100 grams
She was working out whole night cut her hairs and even drew her blood but Vinesh Phogat was disqualified because of being overweight. Not only Vinesh but this broke every Indian’s heart.
Result of Vinesh Phogat Appeal
She even appealed in The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) about her disqualification in Paris Olympic but CAS rejected her appeal saying that it’s an athlete’s responsibility to maintain her or his weight.
Some people also blamed Vinesh, her coach, physician and nutritionist over her disqualification.
Vinesh Phogat’s Decision of Retirement
A day after Phogat’s disqualification she announced her retirement on 8 august 2024 she wrote “Mom wrestling has defeated me, I lost. Forgive me, your dream, my courage is all broken, I don’t have any more strength now.”
Goodbye wrestling 2001-2024,”
It was heartbreaking to see such a talent to retire at such an early age. When Phogat landed in India she was welcomed grandly at the airport by Khap Panchayat (a community organization to represent a group of north Indian castes) and Congress leader Deependra Hodda was also present there.
She was treated just like a gold medalist and was honored just like that. Khap Panchayat even announced that they will give Vinesh a Gold medal and will also demand a judiciary inquiry in this matter. Phogat accepted their support for her and thanked them.
Haryana government also announced to reward and treat Vinesh as silver medalist however, Vinesh has termed it a political move because elections are around the corner in Haryana.
Protests in which Phogat participated
- Last year 18 January 2023 Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia started protesting with other wrestlers on Jantar Mantar (New Delhi) against the chief of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and BJP leader Brij Bhushan Singh Sharan accusing him for female wrestler’s sexual assault and molestation.
Wrestlers were demanding his immediate resignation and wanted him behind the bars.
They even wrote a complaint letter to the Indian Olympic Organization (IOA).
Brij Bhusan Sharan denied all the accusations from start to end and called it a conspiracy against him.
Wrestlers ended their protest after meeting sports minister Anurag Thakur on 21 January 2023.
The Sports Ministry also took immediate action and formed a 5-member committee with Mary Kom as its chairperson but wrestlers were not happy with this decision; they wanted the government to consult with them. Babita Phogat (Vinesh’s cousin ) was also a member in this committee.
On 23rd April wrestlers started their protest again by stating that 7 female wrestlers including a minor were molested but Delhi Police didn’t even register their FIR.
With all this ongoing dispute PT Usha expressed her displeasure and said that wrestlers should be disciplined and rather than sitting on streets they should contact the IOA.
Riots broke out between the police and the protesters. Cases were filed against Vinesh and fellow protesters, the wrestlers talked about returning their medals and medallions and throwing them in the Ganga; the Supreme Court had to intervene.
Political colors were also seen in the protest when Rahul Gandhi met with protesters and farmers also supported this protest who were already protesting for MSP.
After all the fuss Brij Bhushan was dismissed from his post and it was decided to conduct the elections but was not conducted on time so United World Wrestling suspended WFI.
The hearing of Brij Bhushan case is still going on.
- Vinesh met the farmers on 31st august 2024 at shambhu border. These farmers are demanding MSP and some others demands from the government and it was the 200th day of their protest when vinesh went to meet them.
She expressed her support towards farmers and told the reports that the government should not ignore them. She further added that if farmers won’t feed them even athletes won’t be able to perform and these farmers give them strength in their protesting days when their courage was broken. She said to farmers that your daughter is with you.
When she was asked about Haryana elections she said she doesn’t know about politics if they ask her about sports she can tell.
Vinesh Joining Politics
After retiring some days later Vinesh and her fellow wrestler Bajrang Poonia joined the National Congress Party on 6 september 2024.
She said in the press conference that when they were dragged on roads all parties from the whole country were supporting them except BJP. She is proud that she is joining Congress, a party which speaks against women crimes and just right after that Congress gave her ticket from ‘Julana’ her husband’s village.
Currently Phogat is busy campaigning for her election she is doing door to door visits and making people believe that she will develop ‘Julana’. A video of her also going viral where she is saying that this symbol of hand which is congress party election symbol will be a slap and its echo will be heard till Delhi.
People reaction on Phogat’s joining politics
People are divided into two groups. Some are supporting her but some people aren’t happy with her decision of retirement and just after that joining politics.
People started trolling her and saying that her protests was also part of this and from the very first her plan was to join politics.
Vinesh justified her decision saying that people like Brij Bhushan are safe because they are in power so we also have to be in power. She said that for women she is contesting the election.
Conclusion
Vinesh comes from a backward village of Haryana but managed to represent India on multiple international stages.
For women who want to pursue their career in sports Vinesh is an inspiration for them. She struggled, worked hard and shined like a bright star.
After having a tremendous career in wrestling now she is in politics. Let’s see what happens next.
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