Paris Olympics 2024: 'We have to respect the rules', UWW president Nenad Lalovic reacts to Vinesh Phogat's disqualification

Nenad Lalovic, the president of United World Wrestling, has said that he is disappointed with how things have turned out for wrestler Vinesh Phogat, but added that there were no exceptions for the 29 year-old. Vinesh was on Wednesday disqualified from the 2024 Paris Olympics after she had exceeded her weight by 100 grams following the second day’s weigh-in.

She was supposed to take on USA’s Sarah Ann Hildebrandt in the women’s 50 kg final of the Paris Olympics on Wednesday, but has now been replaced with Yusneylys Guzmán of Cuba.

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“We have to respect the rules. I’m so sad what happened to her. She was overweight, even though by a small margin but rules are rules. The weigh-in is public and all the athletes are there. It’s impossible to let someone to compete who doesn’t make the weight,” Lalovic was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

Lalovic said that the chances of Vinesh leaving with at least a silver medal was impossible. “It is impossible because the brackets are changing. Everything is changing. And anyway, the rules are rules. Everybody who goes to these competitions knows they have a second weigh-in the next day,” he added.

The 65 year-old further said that the focus was on allowing athletes to compete in their “natural weight” that would help them put up their best on the mat.

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“We should be more strict on that because we have a problem that you are living in this moment. The wrestlers are losing too much weight and it’s not good for their health. Many have seen their interest at the moment but they don’t see what happens in 20-30 years. We want athletes to compete in their natural weight. That’s the idea.

“This is when they make the best performances. Unfortunately, it’s a second case here. We had an Italian wrestler the previous day who didn’t make the weight and she didn’t compete,” he continued.

“If you allow this 100 grams, then you would be allowed for 200 grams. There is no end,” the Serbian commented.

In ranking tournaments, the weight-cut rule is a little less severe. “The reason for that is because this is a preparation period before the big competitions like the Continental or World Championships. There is weight tolerance of 1 or 2kg. But it’s just 1kg. The problem is that you already lost 5kg to have a tolerance of 1kg,” Lalovic said on the same.

“That is the problem. Not the 1kg tolerance. 1kg is nothing. But our wrestlers lose, sometimes, 50 percent of their natural weight. And that’s definitely not healthy,” stated the IOC member.