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Much to the delight of Indian wrestling fans, Vinesh Phogat earned a Paris Olympic 2024 quota at the Asian Wrestling Olympic Qualifiers in Bishkesh, Kyrgyzstan on Saturday.
She beat Kazakhastan’s Laura Ganikyzy in the semi-final of the 50kg women’s freestyle category, helping India secure another Olympic quota place in wrestling.
Vinesh Phogat will be competing in the 50kg category event at the Paris Olympics. It is worth mentioning that Vinesh Phogat has been competing in the 53kg event since 2018.
She bagged the 2018 Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medals in the same category and thus managing her weight en route to the Olympics would be a big challenge.
Shedding light on the same, here’s what Phogat told United World Wrestling:
"I will have to manage my weight a lot better. I have brought myself down to 50 Kg after so long so I will try and maintain this as much as I can. It's not easy for me not to put on weight because my muscle mass is very high."
"Because of that, I gain weight easily. It doesn't matter how fit I am, I still gain weight because I have a lot of muscle mass. I just want to control my weight. I have four months left, and every day is very important," she added
"I did the weight switch because I didn't have any option, not out of happiness” - Vinesh Phogat
Vinesh Phogat also revealed that playing in the 53kg category wasn’t her ideal category but she was left with no choice. Nevertheless, the Indian wrestler is delighted to have won a quota place for the Paris Olympics 2024.
"I did the weight switch because I didn't have any option, not out of happiness. But I won a quota for my country in the 50kg category. I am happy that I can go to the Olympics. Whether I go in the 50kg category or in the 53kg category, that will be decided in the trials, but, whatever it is, I won a quota for my country."
Vinesh Phogat is the first Indian woman wrestler to have won gold medals at the Asian and Commonwealth Games. However, she is yet to bag an Olympic medal for the country. Vinesh appeared in both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics but failed to earn a medal.
A frustrating knee injury in the quarter-final led to her heart-breaking end in the Rio Olympics 2016. The 2021 Tokyo Olympics campaign ended with a 3-9 loss in the quarter-final bout.
