Heartbreak for Vinesh Phogat: Why cutting weight is hard and how the rules work | Paris Olympics 2024 News – Times of India

It was a tragic end to an event that promised so much. Some claimed a conspiracy, others saw incompetence. Soon these rumours spread like hellfire on the hellhole formerly known as Twitter. As the old adage goes: “A lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth can put on its boots.” But Phogat’s tale, her epochal effort to get fit, the attempts of her very more-than-competent staff to help her cut weight in time and the heartbreak that followed, shouldn’t be besmirched, by social media conspiracy theorists. Yogeshwar Dutt summed it up best in his tweet when he asked folks not to do politics around Vinesh’s disqualification.

So near yet so far

Phogat is from a sporting family that’s almost wrestling royalty. Her uncle Mahaveer Phogat’s attempts to teach his girls wrestling – rebelling against the yoke of patriarchy – was immortalised on the silver screen in Aamir Khan’s

Dangal

. When Mahaveer Phogat heard that his niece had been disqualified, he broke down. Phogat has often been touted as the most talented in the family, winning a total of 15 medals (5 Gold, 3 Silver and 7 Bronze) in the World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Asian Championships.

Only the Olympic medal eluded her, where she almost faced a Karna-like fate. In Rio 2016, she suffered an ACL injury in her left knee that was deemed career ending. In Tokyo, five years later, she lost to Belarus’ Vanesa Kaladzinskaya and had said that she was “broken”.
But in Paris, she was a different beast, going down to 50kg, measuring every morsel and drop of water. In the very first round she dispatched off Yuki Susaki of Japan 3-2, curbing her natural attacking instinct to shock her oppponent in the last few seconds of the bout. When she won her semi-final bout, her coach wept, but Phogat didn’t blink. Even after victory, she was absolutely in the zone, assuring the media: “I will talk to you tomorrow, not today.”

Phogat’s Weight-cutting Woes

On Tuesday morning, before her first bout she weighed 49.90kg, well below her 50kg weight limit. In the course of the day, her weight went back to 52.7kg as she replenished her body after 3 bouts. Phogat’s normal weight is 57kg, but she had cut it to compete in the 50kg category.
Phogat spent the entire night roiling and toiling, refusing to, as Dylan Thomas wrote, to go quietly into the raging night. Phogat stayed awake till dawn, spending the night skipping, cycling, jogging and doing every bit of cardio to trim down. She even sat in the sauna in the early hours of Wednesday morning but missed her mark by 100g. Dehydrated, she was taken to the Village’s polyclinic after her morning weigh-in.

Vinesh had three bouts on Tuesday, and to avoid dehydration, she was given some water. However, her post-participation weight increased more than expected. Her coach then initiated the usual weight-cutting procedure that has historically worked for her, confident it would be effective. Despite these efforts, by the following morning, her weight was still 100 grams over the 50 kg category, leading to her disqualification.
In a final attempt to meet the weight requirement, drastic measures were taken, including cutting her hair and shortening her clothing, but these were unsuccessful. After her disqualification, as a precaution, Vinesh received intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration, and routine blood tests were conducted to ensure her health at the Village’s polyclinic.

Why is weight cutting hard?

The dreaded weight cut is known to those who toil in MMA, wrestling, bodybuilding and other sports, so much so that Sakshi Malik – the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in wrestling – once joked that one deserved an award for just the weight cut process. The idea that Phogat was let down by her team is preposterous as social media users often tried to decide whether Occam’s or Hanlon’s Razor was fit for the occasion. Her coach Woller Akos is highly regarded as is performance specialist Wayne Lombard. The idea that couch potatoes, whose idea of cutting is a tea, would know more is preposterous.

Wrestlers often compete in categories lower than their natural weight to gain an advantage by facing less physically strong opponents. The weight-cut process before the morning weigh-in involves a controlled reduction in food and water intake, combined with sweating via sauna and exercise.
While this strategy places the wrestler in a lighter weight category, it also causes weakness and energy depletion, which can be detrimental to performance. To counteract this, most wrestlers consume limited amounts of water and high-energy foods after the weigh-in to restore some energy. Cutting is challenging because it requires athletes to rapidly lose a significant portion of their body mass, often up to 10%, in a short period before a competition. This process is particularly difficult for athletes who are already lean with low body fat. The final 24 hours before weigh-in are especially gruelling as athletes attempt to shed the last grams through extreme dehydration, which affects their physical and mental functions.
The recovery process after weigh-in is delicate, as rehydrating too quickly can lead to nausea and poor performance. Additionally, the long-term health risks, including kidney damage and hormonal imbalances, make weight cutting a dangerous practice. Despite the pain and health risks, athletes endure this process because it is necessary to compete in specific weight categories, offering them a strategic advantage in competitions.
The specific intake is tailored by a nutritionist for each athlete. For example, Vinesh’s nutritionist determined that she typically consumes around 1.5 kg of food and water throughout the day to maintain energy for her bouts. There is also the possibility of rebound weight gain after the competition.
Jordan Burroughs, an American gold medallist summed up the issue on X: “Wrestling needs MORE than six weight classes! After three tough matches against world class opponents, no athlete should have to spend the night preparing for a Gold medal in this manner. Absolute desperation from the Indian team trying to get the last bit of weight off of Vinesh to qualify for today’s final.”

How do the rules work?

Weigh-ins take place in the mornings for wrestlers competing. The tournament for each weight-class is contested over two-day span, so any wrestler that makes the finals or the repechage will have to make weight on both days

The last point makes it clear that even feigning an injury (that some social media users suggested could have guaranteed a silver) is a no-go and Vinesh would’ve been disqualified if she didn’t appear in the weigh in.
The only exception is Article 56 that states: “For all the other types of injuries or diseases that happen after the first day of competition and out of competition, the concerned athlete will have to attend the second weigh-in otherwise he will be eliminated from the competition and ranked last, without rank.”
Phogat and Team India tried their best but 100gm denied a talented wrestler the ultimate shot at glory. Of course, this is not the end, and there’s a chance that Phogat will again make a comeback in the tournaments to come but for now, her myriad fans will resonate with the popular Linkin Park song that goes: “I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter.” The French have an expression for it: “C’est la vie.” It simply translates to: Such is life.