Mahavir Phogat has urged Vinesh to rethink her retirement decision. (Picture Credit: Screengrab and AP)
Vinesh took to X on Thursday morning to announce her decision to retire from wrestling.
Vinesh Phogat’s uncle, Mahavir Phogat, has urged the star wrestler to not retire and rethink her decision. 29-year-old Vinesh, who was disqualified for being 100 gm overweight ahead of her 50 kg category gold medal bout in the ongoing Paris Olympics on Wednesday, announced her decision to retire from wrestling on Thursday morning. She took to X (formerly Twitter) to inform her fans about the decision, which came a day after the biggest heartbreak in her career.
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Reacting to the news of Vinesh’s retirement, Mahavir said he would meet Vinesh and explain to her that she should change her decision. According to him, the decision by the three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist had come out of sheer anger from her.
“She informed about the news early in the morning, at 5:00 a.m. This announcement could have come because of the kind of mental state she must be in after losing out on a medal despite coming so close. After meeting Vinesh, will make her sit and explain to her that she should change this decision and work hard on herself. Whenever anyone reaches this close to a medal win, they can take such a kind of decision out of anger,” Mahavir was quoted as saying by India Today.
Vinesh had created history on Tuesday by becoming the first Indian female wrestler to reach the final of the Olympics. But on the morning of her gold medal match, she was found 100 gm overweight, because of which she was disqualified from the competition.
Vinesh had appealed against her disqualification from the Olympic finals on Wednesday in the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), demanding that she be awarded a joint silver medal.
An ad hoc division of the CAS, which has been set up here for resolution of any disputes arising during the Olympic Games or during a period of 10 days preceding the Opening Ceremony, will take up her appeal on Thursday.
If Vinesh wins the appeal, then she will become the first Indian female and the third wrestler overall to win a silver medal in the Olympics. Before her, Sushil Kumar finished second in the 2012 London Olympics, and Ravi Kumar Dahiya won a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics.
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