So, when she, frustrated by destiny, walked away from the mat just days after the dramatic disqualification on the morning of her final at the Paris Olympics for being overweight by just 100gms, it seemed like a journey that had been brutally cut short.
Having endured heartbreaks in three Olympics since Rio 2016, she seemed broken. Her feeble frame in Paris, hair cut short to try and make weight, presented a forlorn picture of an athlete who in her career has summoned great courage just to be on the mat. It pained not just her but all of India.
On Friday, however, there was a glimmer of cheer. Vinesh made the bold announcement that many in the wrestling fraternity and those who know her expected — she is not prepared to quit the mat for good yet, not until she believes she is done; not until she gives herself another chance at winning an Olympic medal at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
She will be inching closer to 35 by then, but as someone who has overcome odds all her life, she would back herself to come good on the big stage.
“People kept asking if Paris was the end,” Phogat wrote on Instagram. “For a long time, I didn’t have the answer. I needed to step away from the mat, from the pressure, from the expectations, even from my own ambitions. For the first time in years, I allowed myself to breathe.
“I took time to understand the weight of my journey — the highs, the heartbreaks, the sacrifices, the versions of me the world never saw. And somewhere in that reflection, I found the truth: I still love this sport. I still want to compete.
“In that silence, I found something I’d forgotten — the fire never left. It was only buried under exhaustion and noise. The discipline, the routine, the fight… It’s my system. No matter how far I walked away, a part of me stayed on the mat.
“So here I am, stepping back toward LA28 with a heart that’s unafraid and a spirit that refuses to bow. And this time, I’m not walking alone; my son is joining my team — my biggest motivation, my little cheerleader on this road to the LA Olympics,” said 31-year-old Vinesh.
There will be enormous challenges on that road. First, she will have to fight her own body and get back to full fitness. Then, she will have to fight it out against youngsters at home to earn a place in the team. Finally, she will have to take on the best in the world.
She will have to weigh her options in choosing which weight category to compete in. The 50kg weight class, where she had to drastically cut weight for the Paris Olympics, proved difficult to maintain. In the 53kg category, Antim Panghal is now a two-time world championships medallist and would be a top draw for Los Angeles.
In 57kg, talents are quick to surface. The likes of Asian champion Manisha Bhanwala and Neha Sharma are taking steady steps in international wrestling.
Next year, there will be the Asian Games and the world championships, and Vinesh would be eyeing a comeback there.
She has a lot going against her at first glance but she brings immense experience to the mat. It showed during the famous upset of Japan’s Yui Susaki at the Paris Olympics.
A year before Paris, wrestling was far from her mind when she was fighting on the streets, protesting against then WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Then a second ACL injury happened, and she returned to the mat just seven months before the Olympics and qualified in a new weight class (50kg).
Yet, Vinesh was too good for the fast-paced Japanese four-time world champion Susaki. She romped into the final, but bizarre circumstances unfolded the next morning as she was unable to bring her weight down to the 50kg limit, falling just short. Vinesh was in tears, dehydrated and put on drips, as she had tried everything in her power to lose the last few ounces. It was not to be. As rules would have it, she was disqualified.
Vinesh moved the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), contending that she should at least be given a silver medal because she had won her bouts fairly on the first day.
The decision did not come in her favour, and she quit the sport, stood for election, and won the Haryana constituency seat from Julana. This July, she also became a mother to a baby boy. Life has its ways of healing wounds. Vinesh healed from the Paris setback and is now ready to mount a fresh challenge.
