Vinesh Phogat to miss Paris Olympics medal, gets disqualified after being found a few grams overweight

Vinesh Phogat has been disqualified from the women's 50kg final at the 2024 Paris Olympics for being overweight, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) confirmed.

The Indian wrestler was scheduled to face USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt for the gold medal in the women’s 50kg category on Wednesday (August 7). However, she could not make the weight on the morning of her final against the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist.

Vinesh, who was a few grams above the 50kg weight limit, will not be allowed to compete in the final and will also be stripped of the confirmed silver medal. According to competition rules, this means that the 50 kg category at this year’s Summer Games will have just gold and bronze medal winners.

“It is with regret that the Indian contingent shares news of the disqualification of Vinesh Phogat from the Women’s Wrestling 50kg class. Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning,” IOA said in a statement. “No further comments will be made by the contingent at this time. The Indian team requests you respect Vinesh’s privacy. It would like to focus on the competitions on hand.”

According to United World Wrestling, the international governing body for the sport of amateur wrestling, any athlete who does not attend or fails the weigh-in will be eliminated from the competition and will also be ranked last. Rules dictate that wrestlers have to stay within their weight category on both days of the competition. While Vinesh managed her weight on Tuesday, she ran into trouble on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old has had trouble meeting the weight limits previously also. She found it tough to make the weight in the 50 kg category during the Olympic qualifiers too, though she managed to make the cut in the end.