On one hand love and rewards are showered on Indian Olympic medal winners, on the other, Olympian Vinesh Phogat opened up about what happened at Tokyo Olympics. The 26-year-old wrestler was amongst the list of prospective medal winners for India. However, she was jolted by a major loss as the Wrestling Federation of India slapped her with a temporary suspension over her alleged behaviour at the Olympics.
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The entire Indian nation is still grooving in the glory of the best medal haul in any Olympic season. With 7 medals in its kit, the Indian contingent returned India to receive a warm and grand welcome. As it is said though, in every bright room, there’s a dark corner.
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The Story of Vinesh’s Olympic Experience
The dark corner is where Vinesh Phogat is right now. Vinesh, belonging to the Phogat family famous for bringing medals in Wrestling, was dismissed by the WFI her behaviour. During the competition, she chose to not stay with her fellow athletes at the Games Village. Further, she also chose not to wear the official sponsors’ and wore Nike singlet during her games.
“I feel like I am sleeping in dream”
After days of silence, Phogat penned down her tragic story in an Indian Express column.
“I feel like I am sleeping in a dream and nothing has even begun. I am blank. I don’t know what is happening in life. For the last one week, so much has been going on inside me. It’s a story of two hearts, two minds,”
-she wrote.
Also Read: WFI Suspends Wrestler Vinesh Phogat over ‘Acts of Indiscipline’ During Tokyo Olympics
Vinesh Hints on Quitting Wrestling
Hinting that she may quit wrestling she wrote-
“I have given everything to wrestling and now is the right time to leave. But on the other hand, by chance I leave and don’t fight, it’ll be a bigger loss for me,”
she wrote.
She further delved deep about how she was given a new physio who couldn’t understand her body.
“I was reducing weight. I was my own physio and I was the wrestler. I was assigned a physio from the shooting team. She did not understand my body. My sport has very specific demands. She couldn’t help me with what my regular physio used to,”
-she wrote.
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Vinesh Suffered from Anxiety Before Bout
Vinesh also went into detail about the bouts where she suffered losses and gave a picture about what happened before and after the bout.
“I had not eaten the day before the bout. I drank some nutrition but I felt anxious. I woke up with a feeling of vomiting but I could not. I was in pain. There was nothing in my body. Ultimately I did vomit.”
“Didn’t know how to takedown. Mind was blanked out”
While as viewers, we feel that moves in wrestling may come out of reflexes due to training, Vinesh also shared that due to her stressed-out mental state, at one point during the bout she blanked out.
“In the second bout, I knew I was losing. I was giving up points from positions I would never have. I can see that everything is going away but I can’t do it. My mind was blocked to that level that I didn’t know how to complete a takedown. I was surprised that I was blanked out,”
-she wrote.
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Comparisons with Simone Biles
Vinesh also made an insightful comparison and compared her situation to that of athlete Simone Biles. For the unversed, Simone Biles is an American gymnast who withdrew from the Olympics citing mental health issues. After her withdrawal, celebrities, netizens and prominent people lauded her for prioritizing her mental health over the competition.
“We celebrate Simone Biles as she said that I am not mentally prepared to perform at the Olympics and did not do her event. Try just saying that in India. Forget pulling out of wrestling, just try saying that you are not ready,”
-she wrote.
