Vinesh Phogat

‘s disqualification in the Olympics final was heartbreaking not just for her, but for the entire nation. Since morning on Wednesday, the entire nation cheered for her and was confident of her gold win.
After the news of her disqualification broke, several curious questions came to the fore and one of them was if she weighed normal and was in the permissible limit earlier, how did she become overweight within a few hours?
As per Indian contingent’s medical head Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, every wrestler cuts his/her weight to fight in lesser categories.

In the case of Vinesh, she fought at 53kg mostly with a natural weight of 55 to 56 kg.
Once Vinesh came into the 50 kg category, she had to shed at least 6kg before every competition. The sudden weight-cut is an extremely difficult process. After the first day, she gained around 1.5 kg after replenishment.

Once she had cut it, she couldn’t do it in permissible time which was very less. Sudden weight cuts can also cause some serious physical ailments and doctors don’t permit that.
Why did Vinesh fight in 50 kg category, if she always competed in 53kg category? This time Antim Panghal qualified in 53 kg category and Vinesh had to slash weight to compete in the 50 kg category. Meanwhile, Antim Panghal was deported from Paris and his accreditation was canceled due to disciplinary breach. Reports say, Antim’s sister Nisha used the Indian wrestler’s accreditation to enter the Olympic Games Village but was detained by the police. This was Antim’s debut Olympics performance.

Are players allowed concession in weight?

In wrestling, bouts in each weight category are held over two days. The weigh-in, to ensure wrestlers are not overweight in their category, takes place in the morning before the events begin, an official statement from the Olympics reveals.
“If a wrestler fails the weigh-in, they are disqualified.”

Wrestlers have weight cut through a calculated restriction of food and water along with sweating from exercises and sauna.
Due to weight cut wrestlers often get weak and have energy depletion. This affects their performance and hence for this they are given limited water and high energy food. As per Vinesh’s nutritionist, this could have been 1.5 kg in total. But in the final weigh-in Vinesh’s weight increased up to 100 grams.
She even cut her hair but her weight did not come down.