From fighting officialdom to reaching Olympic final, Vinesh Phogat makes her dream a reality

Eight years after leaving the Carioca Arena in Rio de Janeiro in tears and with her anterior cruciate ligament torn, Vinesh Phogat was devastated. The injury was career-threatening but more than that her spirit seemed broken. She picked up those for the next eight years, she fought as much against her own federation as the opponents thrown at her.

Now she is ready for the crowning moment of her career.

Phogat opened the day in 50kg freestyle wrestling by laying low one of the legends of her sport, Yui Susaki, by 3-2 and would go on to add the scalp of Ukrainian Oksana Livach 7-5 to enter the semi-finals.

Six hours later she felled Cuban Yusneylys Guzman 5-0 on points to become the first Indian woman wrestler to enter the final of the Olympic Games at the Champ-de-Mars right below the majestic Eiffel Tower.

Vinesh will now meet Sarah Ann Hildenbrandt of the US in the final. Hildenbrandt, a four time medallist at the World Championships, won a bronze in 50kg in the Tokyo Games where Vinesh failed to find a place on the podium in 53kg.

Vinesh, who has spent a good part of the last 24 months in a battle with officialdom, is now on the doorstep of history. The first Indian woman to win an Asian Games wrestling gold in 2018, she also has three Commonwealth Games gold medals and two medals from the World Championships.

Now an Olympic medal — at least a silver awaits her. Vinesh will become only the second Indian woman after Sakshi Malik to win an Olympic medal. Sakshi, who sat alongside Vinesh in the protests, won a bronze in 58kg in Rio Olympics in 2016.

A gold medal in the final on Wednesday will be the icing on the cake and an advance birthday present for Vinesh who turns 30 in less than three weeks on 25 August.

Vinesh knows a thing or two about handling unequal fights and maybe winning, too. Competing in a sport that is bruising both physically and mentally, she has endured a life full of adversities, challenges and intimidating opponents. Her career has been full of medals, but it has had more than its share of troubles and tears.

Back in 2016 at the Rio Olympics she suffered a career-threatening injury — an anterior cruciate ligament tear — when a medal seemed within her grasp. The whole of India wept when pictures of Vinesh writhing in pain were flashed back home on the television.

Now on Wednesday, regardless of the colour of medal she gets on, the whole of India will shed tears of joy as she stands on the podium.

Vinesh, who made her stand clear to cleanse her sport with an open war she waged against her own federation and its powerful President, former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, showed that same steely resolve as she moved from one opponent to another. Once Susaki was handed her first defeat after an amazing 82-0 run in international competition, moving past the next two opponents Livach and Guzman was comparatively easier.

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Vinesh, who knows a thing or two about handling unequal opponents, may have felt that she was handed a ‘tough’ draw. But she did not show it, as she opened her campaign against an opponent, who knew nothing about losing a wrestling bout in her career. Susaki’s only known losses were against a fellow Japanese, Yuki Irie, and those came in ‘unofficial’ trials back home. Interestingly, Vinesh beat Irie in the 50kg finals of 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

Handed a draw that could have hardly pleased her, Vinesh did not allow it to show, just as she did not weaken day in and day out as she held out against the police trying to quell her; or the powerful federation officials and some media critics, who did not approve of her ‘activist’ methods to cleanse her sport.

The Vinesh-Susaki battle was a similar humdinger that went to the wire. As Vinesh tried to go for Susaki’s leg at the end of the first period, the Japanese held on and thwarted the attempt to take a 1-0 lead at the break. The Indian stayed defensive and patient for most of the second period, till it was down to the last 10 seconds. Now Susaki was 2-0 up.

Then everything changed in the blink of an eye with three seconds left. Vinesh pushed Susaki towards the edge and that brought her back into the match. The scoreboard changed its story and the score became 2-2 as time ran out. By virtue of the last points gained, Vinesh was going to be the victor.

Susaki challenged the decision but the judges ruled against it. The rejection of the appeal meant Susaki was docked another point and Vinesh’s margin of victory became 3-2.

Vinesh, knowing the status of her rival in the sport, was shedding tears in joy but was respectful towards Susaki, who she hugged as she left the mat.

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Going back in time, Vinesh, after the heart-break in Rio, slowly made her way back to fitness and competition and won the Asian Games in 2018 after winning her second Commonwealth Games gold in 2018.

She also made the 2021 (originally 2020) Olympics team, but lost early and when she refused to train with the rest of the team, she was suspended. She issued an apology, but lost her sponsors as the federation stopped the athletes from signing up with private sponsors.

Vinesh was back in 2022 winning a second World Championships bronze in Belgrade and added a third Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham.

Then came the ‘mother of all problems’ — a tussle with the federation President, the well-connected Brij Bhushan. Almost the whole of 2023 and part of 2024 was spent on taking an administration that she and her wrestling colleagues considered as bad for their sport.

It was chaotic with protests and arrests and sympathy mixed with trolling and negative media. Yet Vinesh kept her fight going on and off the mat. She trained on a makeshift mat at the venue of the protests.

Critics called it ‘playing to the gallery’ and TV cameras. Maybe the determination to make a point kept her going.

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In February 2024, the world wrestling body lifted the suspension, which had been forced on them six months earlier for not holding the elections. However, the world body also took a guarantee that no discriminatory action would be taken against Vinesh or other wrestlers, Bajrang and Sakshi for protesting against the federation.

Then as Vinesh returned to proper training and competition, she won gold at the nationals, marking her return to competitive wrestling after nearly 16 months.

In March 2024, Vinesh participated in two weight categories (50 kg and 53kg) and emerged winner in the lighter category in the trials for the Asian Wrestling Championships and Asian Olympic Games Qualifier.

A month later Vinesh secured Paris Olympics quota in women’s 50 kg category by reaching the final at the Asian Olympic qualifier, beating Laura Ganikyzy in the semi-final.

The WFI declared that the wrestlers who had won the quota would compete in the Olympics. Vinesh, therefore, was on the flight to Paris.

But the question was, could the wrestler, who had shown so much promise but suffered so much turmoil over the last two Olympic cycles be up to it?

Pitted against one of the legends of women’s wrestling, Susaki, few, if any, gave her a chance. That was answered on Tuesday in the arena, which is a stone’s throw from the world famous Eiffel Tower, that rises above into the skies of Paris.

Only Vinesh knew she could do the impossible. She has done it before. She did it again.